Photo courtesy of Oakland University

After more than seven years of effort and support, Oakland University’s Advancement staff, directors and donors celebrated raising over $151 million for Oakland University.

On Jan. 22, the celebration of the “Aspire. Advance. Achieve.” fundraising campaign’s closure was hosted at Ballroom A of the Oakland Center. Donors, faculty and the OU Board of Trustees (BOT) were invited to celebrate the announcement of the total money raised.

With a burst of sparklers and cheering, the total funds raised by the six-year campaign was revealed to be $151,971,818.

The celebration was conducted by Board member David Kramer and OU President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz. Both delivered speeches celebrating OU’s most successful fundraising campaign and the community’s strive for accessibility and affordability in higher education.

“[The celebration reaffirms] the commitment to world-class education to make communities a better place,” Kramer said.

Concluding with a three-minute video of the campaign closing, the celebration encapsulated a fraction of a ten-year effort.  

The public launch of the campaign was on Nov. 17, 2018. However, Richard Rachner, associate vice president for philanthropy, explained that the prework to organize the campaign’s structure began in 2014.

“What are the bigger, bolder ideas and how do we get those on paper?” he said. “How do we vent those out and turn them into fundable opportunities? How do they impact and fit into the pillars of the university?”

“We were really in a stride out of 2018 with that launch,” Assistant Vice President of Advancement Operations Lauren Jeske said. “We had a lot of good things coming together, a lot of folks out on the road, and everything was going very strong for us.

“A lot of our relationships are in-person, so when the pandemic hit, it was difficult for us to connect with donors,” she said. 

However, the difficulties of COVID-19 also yielded significant connections through what Jeske called “care calls,” periodic conversations with donors and corporate partners over the phone to support them during the pandemic.

 “It was no different than maybe me checking on my mom and dad or grandparents or my kids,” Rachner said. “It was just an opportunity to talk about real life and see how different people are doing and connect on a different level.”

“A lot of those ended up providing great support for the university and helped us support the campaign, to the point that we were able to close this campaign a year or so early,” Rachner added.

With the early conclusion of the campaign, Pescovitz explained that the funds — provided by 19,871 donors — would be used for campus expansion, accessibility and enhancement.

The funds were distributed amongst a variety of campus institutions. The $20.6 million from Corewell Health, for example, was used for academic assistance for new nursing students and the creation of new labs, according to Rachner.

Other examples include the $72 million raised for student success scholarships, OU Credit Union’s $1 million contribution for campus sustainability and a collaborative campaign that raised $140,000 for OU’s food pantry. 

The celebration particularly highlighted the first-time donors and young alumni donors. The two groups made up 61% and 15% of all contributors respectively, exceeding the expected number of donors.

All of these accomplishments, Jeske said, signal the success of the campaign’s messaging and case to the donors.

“For us, that signaled that our messaging, our case, our proof to donors that OU is the right place to invest in really resonated…we are having these intentional conversations and communications that really create the compelling case to invest in OU,” she said.

For more information about the campaign and how to donate, visit University Advancement’s website.