NC State set a new university record for private giving this fiscal year, with gift receipts and new commitments reaching $208.5 million.

This is just the latest uptick in an unprecedented surge of donor support since Chancellor Woodson took the helm in 2010. Before his arrival, gift receipts and new commitments had never topped $100 million per year; for each of the past three years, they have been roughly double that figure. For the first time ever, NC State’s endowment is approaching the $1 billion mark.

Donors big and small are boosting NC State: More than 36,000 donors supported our innovative work in 2015, a 15 percent increase over 2011. Gifts arrived from all 100 North Carolina counties, all 50 states and 49 countries worldwide.

Exceptional gifts continued to mount in this fiscal year.

A $4 million gift from Steve and Judy Zelnak created an endowed dean’s chair in the Poole College of Management. Moise and Vera Khayrallah gave $8.1 million to found a world-leading center for diaspora studies — the only one of its kind in the country and the first endowed center at NC State. The R.B. Terry Charitable Foundation pledged $16 million to the College of Veterinary Medicine, already ranked No. 3 in the nation. And the Goodnight Scholars endowment became the first NC State scholarship endowment fund to surpass $100 million.

This year’s strong fundraising sets the stage for the largest capital campaign in NC State history. Philanthropy has a powerful impact on the university, helping us attract the best and brightest students, recruit and retain the nation’s top faculty and advance crucial research that seeks out problems and solves them.

NC State’s growing support has already drawn national notice: The university is steadily climbing the Philanthropy 400, an annual ranking of fundraising effectiveness published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. By the end of 2014, NC State stood at No. 25 among the nation’s public colleges and universities — and 48th overall among all institutions.

State funding gives this university the foundation to be good, but it’s the record-breaking support of alumni and friends that makes NC State great.

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CATEGORIES: Philanthropy, Research, Scholarships, Think and Do