The Annual Fund

Chapter 7

A Rich History of Philanthropy

From its earliest days, Saginaw Valley State University benefited from thousands of volunteer hours and millions of dollars of private support.

It was corporate and private contributions that, at the birth of the institution, raised the initial $4 million stipulated by the State of Michigan for acceptance of the private Saginaw Valley College as a public institution, and this spirit of generosity toward SVSU continued over the years.

The SVSU Foundation was established in 1977 as a separate legal entity with the mission of generating and cultivating a community of enthusiastic and loyal donors to support educational objectives.1

The foundation has even deeper roots in the history of the university, originating in 1965 with establishment of the SVC Development Fund2 and the transfer of property from the private college to the state. The December 1965 articles of incorporation for the fund listed assets in real property as “none” and in personal property as $125,000. The university revised the founding documents Oct. 11, 1976, and then again with the state’s addition of “university” status on Dec. 17, 1987, to form what is now known as the SVSU Foundation.3

By 2013, the corpus had grown to $64 million overseen by a board of directors led by six officers — a chair, the university president as first vice chair, a second vice chair, the secretary, the treasurer and an executive director — and members that include sitting and former appointees to the Board of Control, community leaders loyal to the university and several honorary directors.

The Annual Fund

The foundation’s nurturing Annual Fund took shape 1977 “when 17 friends of SVSC volunteered to plan and implement the first mail campaign for the … college”4 and expanded over the years to become an essential component of private support for the university, especially student scholarships. Some 133 donors contributed $42,721 then.