(Seguin) — TLU is celebrating what might just be its largest financial feat in school history. After launching a multi million dollar fundraising initiative in 2011, Texas Lutheran University today is announcing that it not only has reached its $75 million goal but it has done so one year ahead of schedule.
Under the leadership of former President Dr. Stuart Dorsey, TLU officials say the Office of Development engaged with alumni and friends who could help invest in the Ignite. Inspire. Impact. campaign — a campaign that had grown to a goal of $75 million for facilities, academic programs, endowments, and annual scholarships.
Renee Rehfeld, TLU vice president for development and alumni relations, says the university is grateful to everyone who supported what is the largest campaign for the university.
“At the time that we started it, it actually started with a $55 million goal and as we got into the campaign, we just saw more momentum building and people were giving to different things across campus whether it was buildings or scholarships or programs and so, we ended up increasing the goal twice which is totally unheard of usually for a university but we ended up increasing it to $65 million and then we increased it to $75 million with the intention of ending it in May of 2020,” said Rehfeld.
Rehfeld says as TLU got closer to that May deadline and as the leadership change was on the horizon, the donations continued to come in.
“Then when we kicked off the campaign in September, it still was sort of in our heads that it would be 2020 but then, Dr. Dorsey announced his retirement and typically campaigns end with the retirement of the current president and so for our group, we just knew that we had to make sure that we ended it successfully and so we did. We just got more people engaged with the university, interested in the what was going on out here, seeing all the great programs, seeing our amazing students and really putting the story out there in a bigger way and so as we got closer and closer to that May date, we were wondering whether we were going to actually be able to kick it over the $75 million amount but about a week there, we had a commitment come in that put us over it so we were very excited and we are very excited for the university. It is just something that puts us in a different league now,” said Rehfeld.
Rehfeld says this campaign was all about transformation. She says all you have to do is look around and see the results of these dollars.
“So it started with the athletic complex, getting all the sports plan on campus with the new stadium and then there were some master’s programs that were added that some of the money went to and then it was the nursing program which has been an amazing blessing to the university and we’ve been very blessed with contributions coming from individuals as well as foundations and so forth and just the quality of the program building and so that is a program that continues to affect the students that are there currently but it’s going to affect the students that come in the future as well as all the projects that we do and it actually culminated then with the building of the Weston Center for Performing Arts in terms of the last building project that we did,” said Rehfeld.
Helping to reach that figure of $75.6 million was exactly 7,162 donors. Rehfeld says the contributions did not only go to buildings, but it also went directly to the students and to the programs that are vital to TLU.
“But in addition to that, we were also raising money for scholarships and the way the scholarships work is that not only are you benefiting today’s students but you are benefiting students for generations to come because the core purpose stays at the university for in perpetuity
so it was all about making a huge impact to this campus through new buildings, new programs but then also being able to help current students and future students to have an even bigger and better experience than what they ever had before,” said Rehfeld.
Although TLU is celebrating the success of this $75 million campaign goal, Rehfeld says a new vision is always just around the corner.
“Basically in the development world, we always joke that you end one campaign and you start another one and most of the time, the silent phase of the campaign no one is really in the know about but there’s definitely projects that we are working on and putting in front of people. We are always raising money for scholarships because we have so many of our kids with financial need so that will never end so we are looking forward to and as Dr. Cottrell gets situated in the presidency and goes through a strategic planning process, we will sort of see what initiatives rise to the top that we will go full force with for like if there is any building projects that are included or whether we stick with a more endowment driven scholarship campaign but definitely there will be another campaign coming up,” said Rehfeld.
Current President Dr. Debbie Cottrell adds that the campaign’s completion is a historic moment and shows how alumni and donors both stepped up to support TLU in a truly impactful way.