Volume 2/Number 1

1999

Campaign for Delaware: Bounds Beyond Half-Way Mark

It is history in the making. Just one year into the five-year Campaign for Delaware, the first comprehensive fund-raising effort in the history of the University of Delaware, the results have been nothing short of remarkable.

As of June 30, 1999, a total of 42,723 donors--alumni, friends, staff, corporations and foundations--had contributed or pledged $134,081,965 toward the Campaign, which has a goal of $225 million.

The Campaign's success is due in part to the generosity of alumni such as Sandra Singer Rauschenberger, AS '92, who recently made her first gift to the University--an impressive $5,000.

An anthropology major who holds a master's degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Rauschenberger jokes she wants to be the next "Indiana Jones," and she has participated in an archaeological dig in Israel. For now, however, she keeps busy at her New Jersey home developing administrative units for businesses and "writing the great American novel."

Rauschenberger says the gift was her first to the University for one simple reason: "I never had the money before." Once able, she was more than willing to give, believing that her gift is part of a continuum.

"It is kind of like Social Security in reverse," Rauschenberger says. "You get the benefit of great professors, and that costs money. Somebody paid for you, with their gift or endowment, to provide you that quality education. Now it is your turn to give back. It is a continuation in the chain of education."

Rauschenberger was motivated to give by her positive college experience. "What the University of Delaware gave me was priceless, so the least I can do is give back to it after it gave me so much," she says.

"I really loved Delaware. I tell everyone who will listen they should go to Delaware," she adds. "Delaware is a very large school, but I never felt overwhelmed. I always felt like I was at a small college. The professors always had time for you."

The $5,000 donation is earmarked for the Department of Anthropology, for which Rauschenberger has particularly fond memories. "I am hoping my gift will help them further their work, so that they can give even more back to the students by expanding their knowledge," she says.

Joining Rauschenberger in support of the Campaign for Delaware were 650 members of the Class of 1999 who pledged $173,000 to the University, many making three-year commitments. That is, by far, the largest amount ever pledged by members of a graduating class at the University.

Funds raised through the Campaign for Delaware are being used for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, endowed faculty chairs, young scholar-teachers, the University's acclaimed discovery-based learning initiative, the University of Delaware Library, facilities and equipment and unrestricted annual support.

The University is seeking $50 million in student support through the Campaign for Delaware, $40 million of which will go toward undergraduate scholarships. These scholarships enable the University to attract the most gifted students to campus and to provide educational opportunities to qualified and deserving students who might not otherwise be able to attend the University.

The Campaign also is seeking $10 million to fund graduate fellowships. Today's graduate students are tomorrow's scientific, business and professional leaders. Support furthers the research and teaching missions of the University and provides a powerful tool to use in recruiting the most promising graduate students.

Because the strength of the institution is a reflection of its faculty, the University is seeking $35 million in support through the Campaign. The bulk of that money, $25 million, is for endowed faculty chairs.

Gifted professors contribute immeasurably to the development of students through teaching and mentoring and to the welfare of the region and nation through research, creativity and service. The University's goal is to add 50 endowed chairs and professorships to the faculty, more than doubling the current number.

The Campaign is seeking another $10 million to support young scholar-teachers. The first two to three years in a young faculty member's career are critical to his or her future success, and the university that can provide a significant level of support during this time will have the best chance of recruiting top-notch young faculty. These funds will ensure that the best and brightest young professors will launch distinguished careers at Delaware.

Another $40 million is being raised to support the University's academic program. Of that total, $30 million will fund the University's discovery-based learning initiative, which has earned the praise of the Carnegie Foundation.

Opportunities for "learning by doing" are playing a greater role in the undergraduate experience and are increasingly sought after by students. This initiative builds on the University's established strengths in undergraduate research, internships, study abroad and other programs designed to provide students with hands-on experiences, and supports curricular reform leading to active discovery-based learning courses.

The Campaign is also seeking $10 million to support the University of Delaware Library, an exceptional resource that serves every member of the University community as well as many patrons beyond campus. Funds will ensure that
the library can keep pace with an ever-expanding base of information and the latest electronic gateways for the storage and retrieval of that information.

The Campaign is seeking $50 million for capital support, encompassing facilities and equipment. The University is committed to continuing the legacy of excellent and attractive facilities left to us by preceding generations, and the Campaign is seeking $40 million for campus facilities. State-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories in a beautiful campus setting combine to create an optimal living and learning environment.

The Campaign is seeking $10 million for equipment. Today's learning environment includes an increasing array of instructional technologies, from electronic library resources to computer-enhanced classrooms and computer resource laboratories accessible to all University of Delaware students.

Finally, the Campaign is seeking $50 million in unrestricted annual support from alumni and friends. These gifts are the lifeblood of the University and provide the Board of Trustees and administrators the freedom to respond to new opportunities for excellence as they carry out the day-to-day operations.

Among the generous gifts to the Campaign to date are the following:

• The Longwood Foundation has made a gift of $10 million and the Crystal Trust has made a gift of $2 million for the expansion of DuPont Hall. Allan Greenberg, the architect who created Gore Hall, is designing the new building on the University's picturesque and historic Mall.
  
  
• Fred Rullo, of the Class of 1963, and his wife, Madeleine, gave a $1 million gift for Fred Rullo Stadium, the first University athletic facility with an artificial turf playing surface. The stadium, which seats 2,500, is home to the varsity women's field hockey and men's and women's lacrosse teams. It was the scene of many exciting and well-attended men's lacrosse matches this spring, as the Fightin' Blue Hens battled their way into the NCAA Division I tournament.
  
  
• Friends of Edgar S. Woolard Jr., the retired chief executive officer of DuPont, have established a $1 million endowed professorship in his name in the College of Business and Economics.
  
  
• A $1 million endowment for the Louis Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy in the College of Human Resources, Education and Public Policy is well on its way, with 500 donors having given approximately $1.1 million to date. Mr. Redding was Delaware's first African-American lawyer and a civil rights icon. Support has come from MBNA America, members of the Delaware Bar and a combination of corporate, government and individual gifts. Those individual gifts include a $1,000 donation from students at the Redding Middle School in Middletown, Del.
  
  
• In southern Delaware, Eleanor and the late Charles Paradee have made a $2.6 million commitment to establish the Paradee Center in Dover, which provides a central, accessible location for a number of University programs.
  
  
• Ann Nields Garstin left a bequest to the University in the amount of approximately $9 million to be used to establish a scholarship fund in memory of her father, the late Judge John P. Nields, judge of the U.S. District Court.

Gifts to the University of Delaware may take many forms, may be applied to current use or endowment and may be directed to virtually any area of the University. Gifts to the Campaign for Delaware will be used totally to support the area of the donor's choice, as in the case of Rauschenberger, who wanted to support the Department of Anthropology. There is no administrative fee attached to any gift to the University.

Gifts also may include marketable securities, real estate, pension plan assets, insurance policies and planned gifts, including deferred gifts such as charitable trusts, life income gifts or bequests, which are tax-wise ways of giving to the University. Planned gifts may provide special tax benefits and, in some cases, income to donors. Donors should contact the University's Office of Planned Giving, as well as their own financial adviser, for information.

Also, corporate matching gifts provide a way for donors to at least double the impact of their gifts. More than 1,000 companies sponsor matching gift programs for employees and their families. Most companies match on a dollar-per-dollar basis. Some match on 2-to-1, 3-to-1 or even 4-to-1 ratios. Because each company manages its own program and has its own guidelines and forms, donors should contact their personnel or benefits office for more information.

To contact the University Development Office, including the Planned Giving Office, write to: Development Office, Academy Building, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; telephone (302) 831-2104; or fax (302) 831-3045.

"By the conclusion of the Campaign for Delaware, we will be able to claim with pride that we have secured for the University, which through the 1990s has been one of the brightest stars in higher education, a powerful presence in the 21st century," said University President David P. Roselle. "We understand that this Campaign is not only about dollars and cents but also about how such support will provide added ability to improve our University for generations of students to come."

That, too, is well understood by Sandra Singer Rauschenberger, who encourages other friends of the University to "give to the future."

"Somebody gave to your future," she says. "Everything comes back around, and now it is your turn to give."

–Neil F. Thomas II, AS '76