Gifts to WMU during 2015-16 top $70 million, impact all parts of campus

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The 2015-16 fiscal year that concluded June 30 saw gifts to Western Michigan University surpass $70 million, the WMU Board of Trustees learned at its Sept. 7 meeting.

The year-end gift report to the board reflected a total of $70,302,260 in gifts, pledges and deferred commitments made during the year by 16,828 unique donors. The gift total is the second largest the University has recorded in the past 15 years.

About the gifts

Detailed information on gifts received showed donors were focused during the year on units across the campus. In addition to a number of gifts made to each of the University's seven degree-granting colleges, major gifts were recorded to the WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, WMU's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Private gifts to WMU enabled the University to:

• Establish 31 endowed funds to support such needs as student scholarships and travel funds.
•  Complete and open a renovated Heritage Hall.
• Fund a Broncos4Broncos student emergency fund and food pantry.
• Install a new scoreboard in Waldo Stadium.
• Continue offering programming to Southwest Michigan and beyond through radio station WMUK-FM.
  
• Refurbish research space and grow programs in the medical school.

"We are enormously thankful to our donors who understand the real power of philanthropy and the impact they can have when they target their gifts to individual units or causes at the the University," says WMU President John M. Dunn. "This year, we've seen a surge in gifts to fund student needs, as our donors—many of them alumni—work to ensure future generations benefit from the Bronco experience. 

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