BGSU wins national fund-raising award

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University is among four institutions of its kind nationwide to be honored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for improvement in fund raising.

The award was presented last week at CASE’s annual Summit for Advancement Leaders in New York City. Other recipients in BGSU’s category—for public institutions classified by the Carnegie Foundation as research/doctoral—were Purdue University and the universities of Memphis and Missouri-Kansas City.

“We consider this to be the highest award our development program at Bowling Green has ever received,” said Marcia Sloan Latta, associate vice president for University advancement and director of development.

It’s particularly special, she explained, because it’s not based on an application but rather on data that all institutions submit for the Council for Aid to Education’s annual Voluntary Support of Education survey.

In addition, the CASE judges conduct a blind review—the institutions’ names are removed—of the previous four years’ data, “so it’s not a one-year snapshot in time,” Latta said.

The judges analyze several key performance indicators, including the highest percentage increases in fund raising. In BGSU’s case, the increase was 74.5 percent from fiscal year 2002, when just under $8,514,000 was collected, to fiscal year 2005, when the University’s fund-raising efforts netted $14,858,478.

“For the University to receive this award is truly outstanding and reflective of the incredible support of our alumni and friends, who are giving so much to help our students and faculty pursue their educational dreams,” Latta added.

“We are so fortunate to have strong leadership on the part of the administration and the deans in the colleges, and all of this helps to make the fund-raising program strong.”

# # #

(Posted July 17, 2006 )