Loyola's 2007-08 Fundraising Efforts Set New Records

Historic Preparing Tomorrow capital campaign closes with more than $93 million committed

Loyola College in Maryland enjoyed yet another record-setting fundraising year in 2007-08. At fiscal year-end on May 31, gifts received totaled $10,113,000, the highest single-year total in College history.

“Successful fundraising is critical to the College’s ability to provide first-rate academic programs, expand financial aid resources for its students, and offer state-of-the-art living and learning facilities,” said College President Brian F. Linnane, S.J. “I am extraordinarily grateful to the thousands of generous donors who continue to demonstrate and increase their support for Loyola, year after year.”

Highlights of the 2007-08 fundraising year included $5.14 million in gifts raised for the Evergreen Fund, Loyola’s annual fund for operating support. This amount marks a nine percent increase over last year’s total and an all-time high in dollars raised for operating support in a single year.

Leadership support for the College grew as well, with The John Early Society, Loyola’s leadership giving group, now counting more than 750 alumni, parents and friends as members. Parent participation in fundraising efforts, long a point of pride for Loyola, remained outstanding with more than 60 percent of current parents making a gift to Loyola for the fifth consecutive year.

In addition to the outstanding performance of the 2007-08 annual fund, this year also marked the close of the Preparing Tomorrow capital campaign, the largest fundraising initiative in Loyola history. Formally launched six years ago, the campaign exceeded its original $80 million goal in April 2007, but continued to attract commitments throughout the past year and eventually topped $93.3 million.

In the last weeks of the campaign, Preparing Tomorrow received a number of significant commitments, including a $2 million pledge to establish an endowed chair in the sciences named in honor of 1950s Physics professor Rev. John P. Delaney, S.J.,; a $1 million gift in support of campus facilities; a $600,000 gift to establish the Dottie and Lou Hoen Faculty Development Fund in Loyola’s planned School of Education; and a $250,000 scholarship endowment fund. The campaign also succeeded in meeting its $20 million goal for the Reverend Harold Ridley, S.J. Intercollegiate Athletic Complex, now under construction.

“The remarkable success of the Preparing Tomorrow campaign speaks volumes about the value our alumni, parents, corporate partners and other friends place on the Loyola education and the potential of this university,” said Fr. Linnane. “I am greatly indebted to them, and to Vice President for Development and College Relations Michael Goff, whose extraordinary leadership played an invaluable role in the achievements of this campaign.”

Loyola’s 2008-09 fundraising efforts are already underway.