Syracuse University’s Forever Orange capital campaign has raised more than $800 million since its inception.

The campaign, launched in November, aims to increase the university’s endowment through private donations. The university set a goal to raise $1.5 billion from 125,000 unique donors and have 20% of SU alumni actively engaged with the university.

The Forever Orange campaign has raised more than $846,362,000 from 81,763 unique donors as of Jan. 31, said Matt Ter Molen, chief advancement officer and senior vice president. SU had achieved 11.3% alumni engagement as of Jan. 31, Ter Molen said.

The campaign already raised $770 million by its November launch and attracted 78,000 unique donors. The campaign is on track to meet its goal by the end of its five-year public phase, Ter Molen said.

SU may raise the campaign’s fundraising target as it progresses, Ter Molen said.

“We’re not at that point now,” Ter Molen said. “We won’t make a decision until we get deeper into the campaign, but we will evaluate that, and there is that possibility.”

The campaign has received several multi-figure donations this semester.

SU alumni Patricia and Louis Mautino donated $750,000 in February to support the campaign and establish a scholarship for student veterans. Marylyn Turner and her husband Chuck Klaus, also alumni, donated $15 million in January to fund scholarships and experiences at the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The Samuel I. Newhouse foundation also pledged $75 million to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in January as part of the Forever Orange campaign. The pledge — the largest in SU’s history — would fund several academic initiatives at Newhouse.

The foundation’s gift would make Newhouse one of the largest beneficiaries of the Forever Orange campaign, Ter Molen said.

“Given the gift from Donald Newhouse, the Newhouse school has probably received the most among our schools and colleges,” Ter Molen said. “A gift like that is a generational gift. They’re really rare.”

The Forever Orange campaign has not experienced a decrease in donations as a result of campus protests or bias-related incidents at or near SU, Ter Molen said.

At least 30 racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic incidents have occurred at or near SU since the campaign’s launch. #NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, has occupied the Barnes Center at The Arch and Crouse-Hinds Hall in protests of the incidents.

“We have not seen any significant impact from that to date,” Ter Molen said.

Published on March 3, 2020 at 11:03 pm

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