Dive Brief:
- A seven-year fundraising drive by Penn State has topped the $2 billion mark, making it one of only 12 such campaigns by public universities to pass the milestone, the school reported.
- The Penn State campaign received donations from 167,500 alumni, which the university is claiming to be a national record.
- Overall, the fundraiser had more than 603,000 donors and more than 2.1 million gifts, with $519 million allocated for undergraduate scholarships.
Dive Insight:
It would be interesting to see how the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal affected this campaign. Did the donations drop off after news of the allegations broke in 2011, or did donors open their pocketbooks in reaction to NCAA sanctions levied against the school's football program in 2012, which many Penn State supporters believed were unjust? The campaign, dubbed “For the Future,” officially wraps up on June 30 and has raised nearly $2.2 billion. Penn State’s last campaign, “A Grand Destiny,” ran from 1996 to 2003 and raised almost $1.4 billion.