Marshall University’s campus may be empty right now, but that doesn’t stop the people working for the Marshall University Foundation from trying to do their job the best they can.
“Everything costs money, so we’re pulled in pretty close”, said Joe Allwood, the Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation. As the primary fundraising organization for the university, the Foundation was founded as a nonprofit in 1947 to organize and disperse private resources for the university.
And this goal is being achieved with greater success every year. According to Allwood, the Foundation brought in 5.3 million dollars in 2009, and 50.3 million dollars in 2019.
“Our team worked very hard for a decade for that one zero,” Allwood said. Allwood also said the number of donors has increased “exponentially” in the same time frame.
“Everything we do is donor-centric,” Allwood said.
In mid-2019, the Foundation started their most ambitious project yet: “Marshall Rises”, a campaign dedicated to making Marshall and those affiliated with it greater than the sum of their parts. According to Allwood, it’s the most ambitious campaign the Foundation had ever undertaken.
With a goal of 150 million dollars, the campaign is indeed reaching for lofty heights. But when the campaign was publicly announced in October at Marshall’s Homecoming, the Marshall Rises campaign had already amassed over 105 million dollars, according to Allwood. Currently, the campaign has raised over 110 million officially.
“It’s moving much more aggressively than we expected,” Allwood said.
The money contributed toward the campaign is primarily from private donations. According to Griffin Talbott, the Chief Director of the Annual Fund for the Foundation, the organization does not receive any money from Marshall students’ tuition, so the Foundation depends on these donations to keep their programs running.
And while some of these donations are quite generous, one doesn’t have to break the bank to make a difference.
“A lot of people don’t think they can make an impact with their small gifts,” Talbott said. “But state funds decrease, and the university’s needs increase.”
However, this doesn’t change the fact that many of the Foundation’s donors choose to donate large amounts. According to Allwood, 5-7 percent of donors contribute 95 percent of funds in the average campaign. And sometimes, they would come from unexpected sources.
“What shocked me was that elderly couples sometimes would lose a spouse, and we would be one of the first people they called,” Allwood said.
But where does the money donated go?
Much of the time, donations come with specific funds or causes that the donor wants to contribute toward, and the Foundation does its best in honoring those requests. The donors can typically donate toward any fund or cause they wish, if it’s not a specific student.
The Marshall Rises campaign also has three major funds that it works toward, according to President Gilbert: a new building for the Lewis College of Business, a new baseball stadium, and scholarships.
“Rising tuition costs and student debt are something that every student faces, and will continue to face,” Talbott said.
The Foundation awarded over 2100 scholarships in the 2018-2019 school year to Marshall University students. According to Allwood, there are close to 1,000 funds that the Foundation runs – many, but not all, are scholarships.
And many of these scholarships are funded by alumni, to give people who otherwise might not have been able to come to Marshall a chance.
“The people in the Marshall family are our most valued resource,” said Matt Hayes, the Chief Director of Alumni Relations for the Foundation.
However, one of the biggest challenges that the Foundation faces is keeping close contact with both students and alumni. According to Allwood, many years there’s money left in funds and scholarships because either students did not apply, or they were simply unaware of their existence. Also, due to the chaotic nature of post-college life, it’s hard to keep up with fresh alumni, according to Hayes.
“Our biggest challenge is maintaining a connection with [alumni],” Hayes said. According to Hayes, while there are over 109,000 alumni listed in the Foundation’s database, only about 32,000 (or around 29 percent) have registered contact information.
And according to Hayes, the testimony from alumni is key to the Foundation.
“There is nothing more powerful for a donor to see or hear than [a gift recipient] saying thank you,” Hayes said. “You can’t put a price tag on a ‘thank you’.”
And as for keeping up scholarships and funds for students, Hayes believes that it’s something he’ll work toward improving for the rest of his life.
“We are here for you,” Hayes said. “And we are here for those who come after you. As long as we have life on this planet, we want to ensure that there is a Marshall University to serve. Your relationship with Marshall University is for a lifetime.”
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