The Oregon State University Foundation [1] is an American private nonprofit corporation associated with Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The OSU Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees. [2]
The Oregon State University Foundation [1] is an American private nonprofit corporation associated with Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The OSU Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees. [2]
In 1947, Robert M. Kerr, Edwin B. Aldrich and E. C. Sammons established the Oregon State College Foundation with the aid of OSC President A. L. Strand. [3] They saw the foundation as a means of creating opportunities that the college could not fulfill with state funds alone. That year they collected the OSC Foundation's first donation, a sum of five dollars. The OSC Foundation officially became the Oregon State University Foundation on November 14, 1962.
The university's endowment began with $20,000 in 1961. It took 16 years to reach its first $1 million in total receipts, and four more years to double that amount. Today the university's composite endowment totals more than $896 million [4] , with earnings distributed annually.
With university leaders, the OSU Foundation publicly launched Oregon State's first comprehensive fundraising campaign, The Campaign for OSU, on October 26, 2007, with a goal of $625 million. [5] Donors exceeded the original goal in October 2010, nearly a year ahead of schedule, and the goal was increased to $850 million. In March 2012 the goal was raised to $1 billion. [6] At OSU's annual State of the University address in Portland on January 31, 2014, President Edward J. Ray announced that campaign contributions had passed $1 billion, putting Oregon State with a group of 35 other public universities to cross the billion-dollar fundraising mark and one of only two organizations in the Pacific Northwest to reach the $1 billion campaign milestone. [7] The Campaign for OSU concluded on December 31, 2014, with more than $1.1 billion from 106,000 donors. [8]
The OSU Foundation and the OSU Alumni Association were integrated in 2017 to coordinate fundraising activities and alumni engagement in service to the university. [9]
On October 14, 2022, the OSU Foundation, new university president Jayathi Murthy and leaders publicly launched Oregon State’s second university-wide fundraising and engagement campaign, Believe It: The Campaign for Oregon State University. Since this campaign began in 2017, donors have committed more than $1 billion to support university priority initiatives toward the $1.75 billion goal. [10]
On May 18, 2023, members of the university community celebrated the OSU Foundation’s 75th anniversary [11] . Among the historical highlights shared [12] (figures as of June 30, 2022, unless otherwise noted):
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