Imagine the Possibilities
President’s Update The Campaign for Claflin University June 13, 2014 Dear Claflin Friends, I hope you are enjoying your first few weeks of summer. The campus is now into Session One of our summer term, and we are pleased with enrollment. Session Two promises to take on added life when we welcome a number of high school students to the campus for early matriculation. At the same time, we are administering the first of our Claflin Online courses. Though summer is here, Claflin is humming along quite nicely! I was taking some time to reflect on Claflin’s “Imagine the Possibilities” Capital Campaign and the blessing it has been to this University, I thought I’d share with you two brief thoughts on our progress. Numbers That Tell a Partial Story December 31, 2014 Benchmark Goal Raised to Date Balance Left to Raise
$80 Million $75.75 Million $ 4.25 Million
The Bigger Story, a Campaign that Transforms In its 144 years, Claflin has witnessed acts of generosity which have radically propelled it forward in serving as a beacon of hope, access and success to its students. This is one of those times. The funds that have been paid and pledged into this campaign are having perhaps as big an impact in the life of the University as Lee Claflin’s original $5,000 investment to purchase our grounds and first building in 1869. The transformative effects of the campaign are all around us. Claflin rebuilt infrastructure, expanded housing, dramatically widened its research capabilities, and has deeply embraced the digital education environment with the integration of smart classrooms, high-speed wireless connectivity and massive data capabilities. These improvements have transformed Claflin into a 24/7 teaching, learning and research environment. Claflin a Model for the Fundraising Future At the same time, the Campaign itself has become a model for not only HBCU fundraising but for higher education as a whole. That model draws upon the resources, vision and enthusiasm of all its constituencies. These include funding from alumni, staff, parents, faculty, business and industry, private foundations, and state and federal government. Even our current students have an integral role. While raising just over $157,000 against their original $100,000 goal, they have also fully embraced a lesson in philanthropy that will carry with them into their future roles as the next generation’s visionaries. What an inspiration! Is it all surprising that we have just been named to the US News & World Report “Short List” as the Number One HBCU in the nation in terms of the percentage of alumni giving back to their alma mater? See the story here! Have a great summer!
The World Needs Visionaries