Campaign at NCSU tops billion

N.C. State University leaders kicked off a capital campaign seven years ago hoping to raise $600 million.

As the money rolled in, that bar was quickly lifted to $1 billion.

Mission accomplished.

The Achieve campaign has closed with $1.37 billion, Chancellor James Oblinger told a faculty group this week, letting slip a secret that will be formally announced next month.

In topping the $1 billion mark, NCSU joins a fairly exclusive club. About 50 universities have hit the $1 billion mark in fundraising campaigns, according to data kept by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Ten institutions have hit that number twice, and one, Stanford University, has done it three times, according to the data.

"Anyone who achieves success in a billion-dollar campaign has achieved something significant," said Rae Goldsmith, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, who added that the success may pay off again. "People do like to give to success. Once an institution has demonstrated it has used the funds it raised wisely, people will give again."

About 30 public universities have raised that much money, including UNC-Chapel Hill, which last year ended a campaign that raised $2.38 billion. Duke University is the only other billion-dollar North Carolina institution; it raised $2.36 billion in a campaign that ended in 2003.

Oblinger said he was particularly pleased by the NCSU campaign, given that relatively few land-grant universities are able to hit the billion-dollar mark and because the Achieve campaign was just NCSU's third such fundraising initiative.

"It's truly something to celebrate," he said this week at a meeting of NCSU's Faculty Senate. "We have much to be proud of and much to be grateful for."

Oblinger also noted that NCSU got to the billion-dollar mark without the benefit of a medical school, traditionally one of the most popular destinations for donor dollars.

"Things like cancer research and pediatric medicine are causes close to donors' hearts," said Goldsmith, the CASE spokeswoman. "So it's often easier to connect with donors because it's personal."

Among other things, the $1.37 billion will let NCSU expand its endowment, build new facilities, and improve student and faculty recruitment. And it will pay for:

* 68 new professorships.

* 872 new scholarships.

* 142 new graduate fellowships.

Much of the money, about $499 million, will go to faculty research, and about $100 million is earmarked for athletic facilities, Oblinger said. One athletic facility highlight was a $3 million gift from alumnus Lonnie C. Poole, Jr. and his wife, Carol Lynn. A new golf course at Centennial Campus will bear the Poole name.