Gifts to WMU on pace to exceed last year's record
Dec. 8, 2000
KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan University received cash gifts totaling $2.3 million during October, more than double the amount received in October 1999.
The 2000-01 cash gift receipts for July through October are running about 12 percent ahead of the same four-month period one year ago, said Bud Bender, WMU vice president for development, who presented the figures to the WMU Board of Trustees at its Dec. 8 meeting. The 1999-2000 fiscal year was a record year in both cash and total gifts.
The $2,337,573 received in October brings the current fiscal year-to-date total of cash gifts to $4,344,838, an increase of $459,739 or 12 percent over the same four months of the previous fiscal year, when the cash-gift total for July through October 1999 was $3,885,099.
According to Bender's report, current and deferred cash gifts received by the WMU Foundation during the 2000-01 fiscal year totaled $4,235,502 through Oct. 31. An additional $109,336 in cash gifts was received by the Paper Technology Foundation, which supports the internationally known paper programs at WMU. All gifts to the University are received through these two foundations.
Total gifts to the University, including non-cash gifts such as equipment and property, totaled $5,070,393 for the first four months of the 2000-01 fiscal year. That represents an increase of $652,904 or about 15 percent compared to the same period during fiscal 1999-2000.
Among the larger gifts received during October were two given anonymously. An anonymous gift of $656,000 was made to support WMU's master's degree program in performing arts management. Another $381,000 was given to support the arts entrepreneur program. Both of these programs are in the WMU College of Fine Arts.
Two more gifts were given for the unrestricted support of the University. WMU received $564,210 from the estate of Rexford M. and Norma M. Clark for the President's General Endowment as well as a $20,000 unrestricted gift from the Pharmacia Foundation for the WMU Annual Fund. The Clarks, previously of Dowagiac, Mich., were both WMU alumni. Rexford received a bachelor's degree in 1927. Norma received a teaching certificate in 1924 and a bachelor's degree in 1956.
Two gifts were given to programs in the WMU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. A final distribution of $20,643 was received from the estate of Harold E. and Kathryn P. Knight for a memorial engineering scholarship in the name of their son, Kenneth W. Knight. Harold Knight was a 1935 graduate of WMU.
An additional $10,000 was contributed by Paul and Sally Hoelderle, of Charlevoix, Mich., to the Paul T. and Sally S. Hoelderle Family Endowment in the Department of Paper and Printing Science and Engineering. Sally Hoelderle received a bachelor's degree from WMU in 1963, and Paul earned a bachelor's degree in paper technology in 1960.
Media contact: Thom Myers, 616 387-8400, thomas.myers@wmich.edu