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Oglethorpe University fund-raising on fast
track
By Wendy Bowman-Littler
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Oglethorpe University has reached about 80 percent of its $35 million
capital campaign goal, with a year-and-a-half left to go. As of
May 12, it had raised $25.6 million.
The funds are earmarked for building and educational projects
and increasing the current $21 million endowment by $16 million.
When the campaign was announced publicly in October 1997, the
university already had privately solicited 58 percent of the
campaign's total from alumni, foundations, individuals and
corporations. Oglethorpe now has $10 million to raise before the
campaign ends Dec. 31, 1999.
This is Oglethorpe's most ambitious campaign, said Robert J.
Buccino, the university's vice president for advancement. The
previous campaign, which ended in 1994, brought in $18.2 million
to help expand the university's library, and increase student
financial aid and the endowment. The campaign before that raised
$6 million.
"We're excited about the fact that this campaign is
significantly larger than the last campaign," Buccino said. "We
have crossed the threshold of the two campaigns combined. We are
confident that we will complete the campaign and reach the goal on
time."
In the past seven months, the campaign has received $5 million,
its biggest growth spurt chronologically except for during the
1994-1995 academic year when a $3.5 million gift came in from the
Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, an arm of the Robert W. Woodruff
Foundation.
More than half of the $5 million donated has come from about
six alumni and individual donors in irrevocable planned gifts,
such as charitable trusts and life insurance policies. During the
campaign, about $10 million has come in the form of planned gifts,
Buccino said.
In addition to the Lettie Pate Evans gift, other significant
donations have included a $1 million gift from Oglethorpe's former
board chairman, Frank Burke (who was chairman of $18.2 million
campaign and retired chairman of BankSouth Corp.), and Steve
Schmidt, president and chairman of Dixie Seal & Stamp Co., and his
wife, Jeanne, who pitched in funds to help build the $1.1 million
Steve Schmidt Sport & Recreation Center.
Another major donation from John and Miriam Conant of the John
H. and Wilhelmina Harland Charitable Foundation helped construct
the $5.4 million Conant Performing Arts Center. The center opened
in May 1997 and serves as the home of the Georgia Shakespeare
Festival.
Next year, Oglethorpe will begin mail and telephone
solicitation of the parents and friends of alumni in its donor
base. The university will continue to pursue significant prospects
of $250,000 and above from foundations, individuals and alumni,
and planned gifts. There also are still a couple of major
foundation requests in the works.
Buccino said once the campaign is over, Oglethorpe likely will
stage another campaign. "The university's physical needs are in
super shape and the academic reputation has never been better," he
said. "But there are physical accouterment that will need to be
addressed in the future, such as science facilities, improvements
to the student union, and there will be continuing emphasis on the
endowment." The campaign's co-chairs are Warren Y. Jobe, chief
financial officer at Georgia Power Co. and vice president of The
Southern Co., and Arnold B. Sidman, of counsel at the Atlanta law
firm of Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin.
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