Making 'Possibilities' possible and achievable
- February 22, 2010
For more than 50 years, Cal State East Bay has helped students make dreams into reality. Now the university is turning to friends and supporters to make even more dreams come true through its University of Possibilities campaign.
Information about this endeavor, the first large-scale fundraising effort in the university’s history, is now featured on the university’s Web site.
“We’re very excited to be able to share news and information about campaign goals, progress and developments through this new channel,” said Bob Burt, vice president of University Advancement. “We’re thinking differently about new ways to engage with supporters and spread the word about this transformative opportunity.”
The campaign officially began July 2009 with a “leadership” phase that will last three to four years. During that time, advancement officials and administrators will meet with private supporters to generate early major gifts for the campaign priorities, including scholarships, faculty support, and a major new initiative for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
Following that phase, the university will publicize the fundraising efforts in a three to four year “public” phase to solicit gifts from a wider range of supporters and alumni.
“At this very early phase of the campaign, the site is aimed more at education than raising money,” said Jay Colombatto, associate vice president of University Communications. “Because this is the university’s first major fundraising campaign, there are a lot of questions internally” he said. Colombatto noted the FAQ section as particularly important for answering questions and helping inform the university community.
The University of Possibilities campaign will be comprehensive and is expected to run for seven to eight years. During this kind of campaign, all gifts to the university count toward the fundraising goal, which Burt says may be between $40 and $50 million.
Cal State East Bay previously ran a smaller capital campaign to raise support for the construction of the Wayne and Gladys Valley Technology Center on the Hayward campus, where only gifts to that particular project were included in the final numbers. That campaign raised $10.5 million total over a few years.
“To ensure the success of this campaign in the long run, it’s critical to start building internal awareness now and ensure that the entire campus community clearly understands the university’s goals and expectations,” said Colombatto. The campaign has four main goals and several different support priorities, which are described in different sections of the site.
The site also includes giving news stories, campaign-related publications available for downloading and posts from the advancement Twitter account.