CSU reports record fundraising for FY 2015-16

FORT COLLINS — Colorado State University recorded record annual fundraising for the fiscal year that ended June 30, school officials said Tuesday.

CSU raised $197.8 million during the 2015-16 fiscal year, said Brett Anderson, vice president for university advancement, surpassing the previous record of $172.3 million. The figure included $166 million for academics and $31.8 million for athletics, and the school said both were records.

The total raised is part of the $1 billion “State Your Purpose” fundraising campaign that CSU launched in February, four years after it completed its first comprehensive campaign. CSU already has raised more than $625 million toward that goal and hopes to hit the $1 billion milestone by 2020, the university’s 150th birthday.

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“We are proud and grateful to be celebrating another record-breaking fundraising year,” CSU president Tony Frank said in a media statement. “We deeply appreciate all those who are choosing to invest in our faculty, our academic programs, research, outreach, athletics, and most of all, our students. This generous show of support from our donors and alumni is a great statement about the enduring importance of the excellent, accessible public higher education offered at Colorado State, and we are truly grateful.”

The total raised in 2015-16 nearly doubles what financial support CSU receives from the state, the school said.

“CSU is focused on excellence in everything we do,” Anderson said. “We have built tremendous momentum in recent years, and people like to support a winner. Our donors support us because they have seen what we are able to accomplish in the lives of our students and around the world through our research and outreach programs.

“CSU has become a world-class university and we continue to strive for even greater heights. Private support allows us to continue to elevate all the things that we do, and our five consecutive years of record support have significantly contributed to our success.”

Nearly 39,000 alumni, friends and other supporters donated, an increase of more than 4,000 from the previous fiscal year, and alumni giving increased from 10.4 percent in 2014-15 to 10.7 percent.

The school reported receiving 29 gifts of $1 million or more, including $13 million for scholarships and infrastructure from alumnus Michael Smith and two anonymous $20 million gifts — one to CSU’s Institute for Biologic Translational Therapies and the other to name the football field for former coach Sonny Lubick at the $220 million on-campus stadium. Donors also bought more than 2,000 stadium bricks, nearly 1,600 of which were purchased by first-time donors to athletics.

The school received more than 24,000 gifts of $100 or less and 10,000 gifts between $100 and $500, Five of its colleges — agricultural sciences, business, health and human sciences, natural resources, and veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences — raised more than $10 million each.