What the state budget takes away, individuals help put back.
The UW-Eau Claire Foundation received more than $7 million in pledged funds from three contributors during the last three weeks.
The largest contribution occurred Tuesday. The gift, given by a son of an Eau Claire professor who retired in 1951, is an estimated $10 million that will be divided between the university and the local YMCA.
| “We are not going to stop when we reach $35 million.” –Carole Halberg Foundation president |
The university will eventually receive $6 million and the YMCA $4 million.
“I was ecstatic when I heard this news,” said Foundation Chairman Dave Anderson, a 1966 graduate practicing law in Eau Claire. “It’s just a phenomenal gift.”
Two other large contributions to the Foundation were made in the last two weeks of November.
The Foundation received word from an anonymous alumni couple that the Foundation will be the sole beneficiary of an estate valued at $1 million, according to a Nov. 25 university press release.
The Foundation also received another gift totaling $615,000 from the Wayne Canar Trust.
Canar, who died in 1973, was a businessman and entrepreneur, according to the release.
The Foundation does the private fund raising for the university, Foundation President Carole Halberg said.
The Foundation usually collects between $2 to $3 million a year, she said.
“This is not going to be a typical year,” she said of the latest financial gifts. “This is going to be a great year.”
The Foundation began in the late 1950s when the Russians placed Sputnik into orbit, Halberg explained.
The federal government grew concerned about a possible technology gap opening between the Soviet Union and the United States, she said. The government matched every university dollar with another $9 in an effort to train more math and science teachers.
The Foundation’s effort is to raise $35 million in funds by July 2005, Halberg said.
With the latest financial gifts, the Foundation is rapidly closing on its goal. Halberg said the pledged total is $33.4 million.
“We are not going to stop when we reach $35 million,” she said, “but the campaign will conclude in June of 2005. We anticipate to exceed our goal.”
