It was just one year ago that we launched our most ambitious fundraising campaign ever - The Opportunity Fund. Of course there had been a good deal of preparatory work extending over the previous 18 months and during that period a number of the potential larger donors had been approached. We have now passed the $21 million mark and we are looking forward to closing the active solicitation part of the campaign within a few months. There will, of course, be a period of several years of ongoing activity in order to collect on pledged commitments.
There are some significant reasons for the success of the campaign. They include the government's commitment to match dollar for dollar, the student commitment of $3.2 million, the faculty and staff commitment in excess of $1 million, the determination of our chancellor who never takes no for an answer, and the dedication of our campaign staff and volunteers. We are not quite there yet and all of our campaign activities are still in high gear, but we are at a point where we can see the end of the road, and that is why I thought it timely to make this report.
In speaking to alumni and community groups I emphasize the importance of participation over the actual amount committed. The simple arithmetic is that if our nearly 50,000 graduates were to contribute $100 each annually ($2 a week), which would cost them substantially less after their tax deduction, we would collect $5 million per year without having a campaign at all. Participation is the secret to all fund raising. We have done well within the university community and a number of our organizational units are participating at 100 per cent of their numbers. Should anybody not have been approached to consider participating in The Opportunity Fund, perhaps you would consider doing so now in order to put us over the top. Five dollars a pay day would be a big help if enough people were to do it. Meanwhile we have already begun to see the benefits from the campaign.
The Student Centre Annex in Corner Brook has been built and is in use.
Four-hundred and twenty-five entrance scholarships will be offered to incoming students for September of this year, almost entirely paid for by The Opportunity Fund. We are in the middle of a first competition for projects to be funded from our academic endowment. Most of that money was there already, but The Opportunity Fund is increasing it. The University Centre is under construction and we look forward to it being open no later than the autumn of next year. The Field House construction will begin as soon as we have enough cash flow from The Opportunity Fund to see it through to completion. We would like to get it under way in the spring of 1999 for completion by the autumn of 2000.
Prior to this campaign, I had no previous experience in fund-raising, so this was something new and different for me. In fact it was quite a learning experience. On the positive side, there were a few very pleasant surprises such as the phone call from out of the blue from a national foundation which heard that we had a fund-raising campaign and offered $250,000 for scholarships. Another was a commitment of half a million dollars from another foundation to our University Centre even though that particular foundation didn't operate in Newfoundland. Yet another was the commitment of over $400,000 to scholarships by one of our graduates from the '50s (the first scholarships have been awarded). We have also had very substantial commitments (in the many tens of thousands of dollars) from individuals who wish to remain anonymous.
But it is not just the big donations that count. Participation, as I noted earlier, is also very important and it is a real pleasure to acknowledge the many and varied activities from casual Fridays to the establishment of scholarships in memory of colleagues. A whole variety of small initiatives has added tens of thousands to the fund.
Of course there have been some disappointments as well; internal and external, where approaches to organizations and individuals were met with a flat no. Fortunately, they were few and we won't dwell on them.
The fact that we have been able to do as well as we have done at a difficult time in the provincial economy says a great deal for the commitment of our community, including our provincial government, to its only university. This is a commitment which we should recognize, and of which we should be keenly aware in terms of meeting that community's expectations.
I look forward to an opportunity later in the year to close the campaign in an appropriate manner.
Sincerely yours,A. W. May
PRESIDENT AND VICE-CHANCELLOR