Celebrating A Historic Fundraising Campaign

As "Our Challenge & Promise: To Give. To Guide. To Grow," St. Ambrose's 10-year comprehensive fundraising campaign, finishes the current phase, Ambrosians will gather to celebrate its unprecedented impact on our students, faculty, programs and campus. Since the campaign launched in 1999, St. Ambrose has raised more than $73 million-well surpassing the $50 million phase one goal, the most ambitious in university history.

"We are very pleased to have achieved such tremendous results," says St. Ambrose President Joan Lescinski, CSJ. "Our students for decades will benefit from facilities, scholarships and program support realized during this campaign. We could not have done it without the generous support of our alumni, friends, and community and corporate partners. To them, we are ever grateful."

Among the more notable milestones reached during the campaign:

• $4.9 million gift – the largest individual gift ever received by the university – from St. Ambrose graduate Jim Hagen '56 and his wife, Mary.
• $4.1 million capital gift given by the H. Reimers Bechtel Trust.
• $1 million bequest from Margaret Tiedemann for the Rogalski Center operating endowment.
• $1 million planned gift from Jane Folwell to establish Ambrose's first fully endowed faculty chair, the Frank and Jane Folwell Endowed Chair in Political Science and Pre-law.
• Endowment growth to a total $93 million.
• Capital projects including the $15.3 million Rogalski Center (top left), opened in 2004, to create a hub on campus for student activities and services, as well as community events; the award-winning $5.2 million renovation of Christ the King Chapel (bottom left) in 2006; and the $11.1 million Center for Health Sciences Education, new home to the nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy programs, due for completion later this year.
• More than 60 endowed scholarship funds totaling $5.9 million, many created in memory and in honor of Ambrose faculty, staff, students and alumni. Such endowed scholarships are vital to St. Ambrose's ability to provide qualified students with access to an Ambrose education.

Campaign celebration events are being planned to coincide with the Aug. 26 dedication and opening of the St. Ambrose University Center for Health Sciences Education at Genesis, with details as they become available shared at www.sau.edu, as well as through regional media.