On Thursday, Jan. 26, UNCW announced the completion of “The Campaign for UNCW: Soaring to Greatness.” The campaign was established in 2005 to increase funds, particularly for endowment, for students, faculty and programs.

The campaign’s goal was $65 million; UNCW raised $66,380,852 almost a full year ahead of schedule. About 48 percent of the funds raised were endowed.

An endowed gift is the establishment of a permanent fund that is both invested and managed. The income generated is used to meet the goals of the donor and the university, while also being used to carry out the endowment’s purpose.

“An endowment is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Mary Gornto, vice chancellor for university advancement.

“The campaign increased awareness for need,” said Gornto. “It also provided the momentum for donors to give.”

In light of recent tuition raises, Gornto said, “One of the most frequently asked student questions is, ‘Why can’t we use the funds raised to offset tuition increases?’ This isn’t possible because 91 percent of the funds raised are restricted by the donor.”

When donors contributed to the campaign, they were able to specify what the money would be used for, whether it was academics, athletics, etc.

The funds raised from the campaign will be supporting various areas, including student excellence ($29 million), academic excellence ($11.3 million), faculty excellence ($10.8 million), regional and global engagement ($5.4 million), annual fund ($6 million), and other unrestricted funds ($3.8 million).

In the category of student excellence, 239 new student scholarships have been established.

“Most of the scholarships are currently being awarded to students as they were established during the six years of the campaign,” said Gornto.

“It is important to note that before the campaign, UNCW had only 200 scholarships established from 1947 to 2005,” said Marla Rice-Evans, campaign director. “We now have over 239.”

This was a dramatic increase from an average of four new scholarships a year to nearly 40 per year.

“The donors who chose to establish a student scholarship would choose to do so for different reasons. Maybe they established a scholarship for chemistry majors because they themselves have a degree in chemistry. Maybe they established a need-based scholarship because they would never have made it to college without their scholarship,” said Gornto.

For more information on the student scholarships established by the Soaring to Greatness campaign, visit http://uncw.edu/admissions/scholarships.html.

“After the press conference, students were asking, ‘what does the campaign’s completion mean to me?'” said Gornto. “It was hard to educate students about the campaign’s benefits.”

“We tried many different ways to educate students about the campaign, including speaking to SGA,” said Evans. “There were pockets of people who knew about the campaign, and we did send out an e-mail upon the campaign’s conclusion.”

Eight distinguished professorships have been established in the area of academic excellence, including, recently, oncological nursing.

“Students expect to see the results of the campaign flashing in front of their eyes,” said Evans. “But the campaign funds will fix things like if a dummy in one of the nursing simulation labs was broken. It would take students a long period of time to raise the money themselves.”

“The professorships will attract higher ranked professors,” said Evans. “It will make UNCW more competitive and will entice them to come here.”

Because of budget cuts, faculty and staff have not had a raise in more than four years, but 1,229 former and current faculty and staff donated $1.3 million to the cause, and 44 percent of donations came from alumni.

“The amount of faculty and staff giving to the campaign showed that they support where they work,” said Evans.

“Donors have made possible the recent improvements to Trask Coliseum,” said Gornto. “Donations also made possible the Fisher Field House, Almkuist-Nixon Sports Medicine Center and the Harris Teeter Fitness Center.”

“All over campus are wonderful examples of what donors’ gifts have done,” said Evans.

Projects established by donors included sending nursing students to Peru over spring break to help sick children and an exchange program for marine science students in England.

While 91 percent of funds raised were given to a specified area, the other 9 percent is unrestricted funds, which the Chancellor will use to meet the university’s highest needs and priorities.

Upon completion of the Soaring to Greatness campaign, Gornto said, “We’re already thinking about a new campaign with the Chancellor. What will the next campaign be? What will the goal be? We don’t know right this minute.”

“It’s been a six-and-a-half year campaign. There’s a new cohort of students to educate,” said Evans. “For the future, we plan on initiating focus groups and to continue working with SGA.”

“We’re also very open to student ideas for future campaigns,” said Gornto.

University Advancement offers student employment through their call center, part of the annual giving program. During the phone-a-thon, student callers will encourage callers to donate annually to the university while also sharing current UNCW news and events with alumni, friends, and family.

Both Gornto and Evans expressed gratitude to the more than 27,000 donors who gave to the campaign in the economic downturn.

“We also want to recognize those students who have given. We’re very proud of students who made an effort to support their campus because it is their alma mater,” said Evans. “We’re excited about the growing understanding of the campaign.

“Every penny raised is about a student,” said Evans. “And students are the most important element to us as a university.”