Successful Fundraising

“We are redoubling our efforts to raise more scholarship funds to better support our students and their life goals, so we as a learning institution can deliver on our promise to society to develop an educated citizenry…who are lifelong learners committed to improving our world.”

—President Deborah F. Stanley, 2019 in announcing The Path

Forward campaign

When Deborah F. Stanley became interim president in 1995, New York state had tightened the budgets for SUNY campuses, and many SUNY schools turned to tuition revenue via larger enrollments to balance their budgets. But not SUNY Oswego. Instead, President Stanley and college leadership decided to streamline programs and staffing where they could while making targeted investments that could pay dividends in the long-term future of the college. Among her first efforts as president, she created the Presidential Scholars program to recruit and retain the highest achieving students, and assisted in raising funds for the program by participating in a range of philanthropic initiatives, including the annual Fall Classic Golf Tournament.

She also invested in professional staff, including the establishment of a senior level vice president position to work directly with and support the efforts of the volunteers on the Oswego College Foundation and the Oswego Alumni Association boards. She saw the benefit in leveraging the expertise and resources of the thousands of Laker alumni to maximize the college’s impact on students and in the world. The strategy paid off. Over the past 26 years, she created a culture of philanthropy on the SUNY Oswego campus that has taken root and will continue to flourish well into the future.

President Stanley oversaw the evolution of annual fundraising efforts into more sophisticated and effective multi-year campaigns, beginning with Inspiring Horizons, which surpassed the original goal by raising $24 million. Guided by the institution’s commitment to student success and achievement, President Stanley launched the Possibility Scholars program, supported by a $5 million bequest, to attract strong students with financial need in New York state to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and give them an opportunity to apply their learning in hands-on, immersive experiences in international locations through the

1996 Presidential Merit Scholarships established

2000 Augustine Silveira Distinguished Lecture Series established

1995

2000 Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement position created 2001

2003 Inspiring Horizons, first comprehensive fundraising campaign launched and ultimately raised nearly $24 million 2004 Cutler Family Public Justice Excellence Fund established 2006 Marcia Belmar Willock ’50 Endowed Professor of Finance established

2009 Possibility Scholarship and Global Labs program launched, including obtaining a $5 million anonymous bequest to fund it

Global Laboratory program. (To recognize President Stanley’s leadership in this area, an alumna and her husband established the endowed Deborah F. Stanley Possibility Scholarship in October. See related story on page 8.) President Stanley recognized the important role that teacher-scholars play in igniting the passion for learning in their students and worked to secure the college’s first three endowed professorships to attract, retain and support superior faculty talent. She also worked with donors to secure support for such hands-on learning opportunities as the Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit, the Student Investment Fund, the Cutler Public Justice Excellence Fund, excellence funds for several academic departments and Student-Faculty Collaborative Challenge grants. Several named lecture series bring to campus some of the greatest minds in the nation and the world.

President Stanley conceived of a second comprehensive campaign, With Passion and Purpose, which engaged more than 16,00 donors and raised $43.5 million. That included the college’s largest gift of $7.5 million from the Marano estate, which established the Marano Scholarships for first-generation college students.

Her impassioned plea via The Path Forward campaign in fall 2019 to raise more scholarship support for our neediest students led to the doubling of the number of need-based scholarships from 220 to 440 within two years—most of which coincided with a global pandemic— and, yet, was successful. The pandemic also created unexpected challenges for many students, which led President Stanley and her leadership team to establish the Student Emergency Fund. The college raised more than $365,000 since March 2020 and made awards to hundreds of students to help them cover unanticipated expenses and remain enrolled in college. Perhaps most significantly, her vision and leadership in private fundraising led to the growth of the college endowment by 3,250% from $1.7 million in 1997 to more than $60 million in 2021, resulting in more funding for students and helping elevate an Oswego education from good to great. In recognition of her tremendous contributions, specifically her exceptional accomplishments as a fundraiser for the college, a group of donors, led by the Oswego College Foundation board, raised more than $2.4 million to name the Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall.

“It was extremely moving,” President Stanley said of the Oct. 1 naming unveiling. “To think about that being here in perpetuity is amazing to me. I am so grateful to these donors—many of whom were my students. That money will create an endowed fund that will enable the campus to keep up the unique equipment needs of this space. It’s incredible and humbling.” “I reflect on Oswego fundraising before President Stanley and

I think about how it stands today. Her leadership has led us to magnificence—magnificence that centers on the learner. She established from the ground up a meaningful and lasting culture of philanthropy at SUNY

Oswego.”

— Jennifer Shropshire ’86, principal at Edward F. Swenson & Associates Inc. and Oswego

College Foundation board member

2012 $5 million naming gift announced for Richard S. Shineman Center

2013 $7.5 million bequest realized, naming the Marano Campus Center 2021 Endowment earns record return of 27.9% and helping to grow the endowment more than 3,250% from $1.7 million in 1997 to $60.6 million today

2014 With Passion and Purpose, second comprehensive fundraising campaign publicly launched and ultimately raised $43.5 million 2021 Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall announced, thanks to $2.4 million from alumni to establish a fund for the space and to honor the president

2015

2019 The Path Forward campaign launched to double the number of need-based scholarships 2021