Sources: Gayle Doll, 785-532-5945, gdoll@k-state.edu;
Jennyfer Owensby, 785-532-6211, jennyfer@k-state.edu;
and Gary Mortenson, 785-532-5740, garym@k-state.edu
http://www.found.ksu.edu/alluniv
Friday, August 31, 2007
Unity Through Giving:
K-STATE TO KICK OFF ALL-UNIVERSITY CAMPAIGN
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University faculty and staff are invited to a free pancake breakfast from 7:30-10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, in Ahearn Field House to kick off the All-University Campaign.
The campaign is a faculty and staff fundraising effort to benefit Kansas State University. Funds raised during the All-University Campaign benefit K-State's Changing Lives Campaign, the university's most ambitious fundraising initiative with a goal of $500 million to enhance student success, faculty development and the learning environment.
All-University Campaign co-chairs Gayle Doll, director of the Center on Aging; Jennyfer Owensby, accountant in the controller's office; and Gary Mortenson, head of the department of music, say they hope to capture the spirit of unity in this year's campaign.
"I like the idea that doing anything 'all university' might lead to more unity," Doll said. "We as faculty and staff of K-State need to step up together to try to continue the efforts to provide quality education."
"Why shouldn't everyone who works at K-State want to give something back to the place where we choose to spend our lives and our energies?" Mortenson said. "We care about this place. It's more than just a job."
Over the lifetime of the Changing Lives campaign, 43 percent of current K-State employees have made gifts totaling more than $12.5 million. During last year's first-ever All-University Campaign, 16 percent of K-State's faculty and staff made a gift. Campaign organizers hope to build on that success and are aiming to increase the participation rate, rather than focusing on dollar amounts.
"While large donations are always appreciated, small donations are just as important," Owensby said. "Even if employees can only contribute $1, $2 or $5 per pay period, they all help this university reach its academic and administrative goals."
Making a donation is easy. Employees will receive campaign packets in September with detailed instructions and giving materials from one of about 65 volunteer faculty and staff campaign representatives.
Faculty and staff members can make one-time gifts, sign up for payroll deductions or explore a variety of long-range gift planning options. Gifts also can be made online at http://www.found.ksu.edu/alluniv
The ability to designate exactly what department, program, scholarship or other area of interest a gift will be used toward is an aspect of the campaign that the co-chairs are particularly excited about.
"There are hundreds of funds set up through the Kansas State University Foundation," Mortenson said. "Find one that resonates with you on a personal level and give to that fund. How better to see the power of giving than to give it to some part of K-State that involves you on a daily basis?"
With declining state support, the future of K-State rests in the hands of willing friends of the university who continue to provide private support for higher education, according to the campaign co-chairs.
"The Changing Lives Campaign has significantly increased financial support for many academic and administrative programs across campus," Owensby said. "But as our campus grows and our ability to rely on tuition increases to cover the loss of state appropriations diminishes, campus departments will find themselves relying more and more on our generous alumni and faculty and staff to fund portions of their operating and special projects budgets."
Mortenson said the Changing Lives Campaign is vital to K-State's continued success.
"Universities that pursue funding through these sources will survive and prosper," he said. "I want to see K-State thrive long into the future and long after I'm gone."