Last year I announced to you that the University of Michigan had just kicked off The Michigan Difference, an ambitious fundraising campaign to raise $2.5 billion. While we all acknowledged that it was a very challenging goal, the University’s successful history with four previous campaigns gave us confidence. I’m delighted to tell you our trust in the outstanding generosity of our donors has been confirmed.
This fiscal year, donors made commitments, including bequest intentions, multiple-year pledges, as well as outright gifts of cash, totaling more than $492 million toward The Michigan Difference campaign. Their generosity brings our total raised for the campaign to $1.8 billion of our $2.5 billion goal. I am very pleased to be able to report that our gifts of cash and pledge payments for this fiscal year totaled a record high of $256 million, the largest amount ever given in a fiscal year to the University of Michigan. This total includes gifts and grants from foundations and other organizations. Individuals contributed $179 million, while corporations, foundations, and other organizations contributed $77 million.
This is a remarkable testimony to the generosity and commitment of our donors, who are contributing to the campaign by whatever means suit them best. Four gifts made to the campaign this year were record-breaking. Stephen Ross of New York pledged $100 million to the Business School, a truly transformative gift. In recognition of this fact, the School was renamed the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. The School will use part of this gift, as well as additional funds to be raised, toward a new facility that will enable it to create a totally new learning environment.
Delores (Dee) and William Brehm of McLean, Virginia are making a world of difference with their gift of $44 million to create the Brehm Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research. Having lived with the disease since her diagnosis while a college student, Dee, and husband, Bill, decided to make a huge commitment to finding a cure.
The third record-breaking gift is from an old friend and dedicated partner of the U-M, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which supported the creation of our Mott Children’s Hospital. The foundation made a commitment of $25 million for the new Children’s and Women’s Hospital. We are so grateful for this resounding reaffirmation of their belief in the care we give to our youngest patients.
Other long-time, generous donors Samuel and Jean Frankel of Detroit have given $20 million to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the largest gift ever made to LSA, establishing the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies.
These donors were joined by almost 120,000 of you who contributed during this first public year of the campaign. Each of these outstanding gifts epitomizes what the campaign is really about—people. While campaign gifts help construct buildings and increase endowments, ultimately every gift improves the lives of people at the University of Michigan—our students, faculty, researchers, staff, physicians—and in the state and beyond.
President Mary Sue Coleman has announced an additional campaign goal that will truly benefit our students from the state of Michigan. The new M-PACT program will seek to raise $60 million in campaign dollars to endow a program to provide additional financial aid support to those in-state students with the greatest financial need. The new program replaces the loans these students would receive with grant dollars, so that combined grants and work-study will cover more than 80 percent of the total cost of attending. This in-state financial aid package is a wonderful complement to the $22 million gift campaign chair Rich Rogel and his wife, Susan, made for out-of-state financial aid at the beginning of the campaign. The goal of both financial aid packages is to make sure the University of Michigan is available to all students who qualify to attend.
Donors are stepping forward to support the campaign in so many ways through cash gifts, bequests, and life income arrangements. In whatever way you choose to support the campaign, thank you for all you do for the University of Michigan. You truly make the difference.
Jerry A. May
Vice President for Development