ISU nears $800 million campaign goal

Iowa State University has raised 95 percent of the goal for the university's $800 million fundraising campaign.

The ISU Foundation reports more than $758.6 million was raised as of the end of March, with an expected campaign end date of Dec. 31.

ISU's campaign numbers were reported this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which polled 43 colleges and universities with current capital campaigns where the goal is $100 million or more. The Chronicle poll gathered fundraising numbers for the first quarter of 2010.

January was a slow month for fundraising at the schools that responded, which is typical, the Chronicle reports, with giving up in February and March on average. March outpaced February in giving by 10 percent, the Chronicle said.

The ISU campaign raised about $3.1 million in January, $2.6 million in February, and $11.2 million in March, for a first quarter total of nearly $17 million.  The ISU campaign will support scholarships, new construction, renovations, professorships and chairs, instructional programs, endowments and research.

The University of Iowa and the UI Foundation are in the planning stages of the next major capital campaign for the UI. University leaders are working with college deans to set priorities for the campaign. For planning purposes, officials have set a working goal of $1.5 billion, which could change. The campaign's public kickoff will not happen until sometime in 2013 at the earliest.  The UI's last campaign, from 1999 to 2005, raised $1 billion in private support.

Twenty-six of the universities surveyed by the Chronicle have campaign goals of $1 billion or more. Go

here to see the Chronicle chart.