Tamara Michel Josserand, vice president for advancement, wrote to the University of Redlands community on October 17 with an update on historic progress in the Forever Yours campaign.
The month of October marks a number of exciting milestones for our University. Two years ago this month, we launched the public phase of the Forever Yours campaign and announced that a record $130 million had been raised. Today, I am proud to share with you that the campaign has now secured $174.2 million in gifts and commitments, bringing us to 87% of our $200 million goal. This represents yet another historic milestone for our University, further demonstrating the collective support of our donors to preserve and enhance what they love about the University for all time. I also wanted to share two additional campaign updates with you:
- Another milestone of which our team is particularly proud is surpassing the $100 million goal for scholarships and financial aid, with nearly $107 million raised to date for this important area. Since the beginning of this campaign in 2013, 55 new endowed scholarships have been established, a tremendous addition to our endowment that will benefit deserving students for all time.
- With nearly $5 million raised for the Campaign for Bulldog Athletics, our student-athletes, coaching staff, and fans are already seeing the benefits of these efforts with our brand-new Daktronics videoboard at Ted Runner Stadium, unveiled last month thanks to the generosity of individual donors and corporate partners. There has been significant progress on our tennis complex project as well, with many former Bulldog student-athletes of Coach Jim Verdieck directing their leadership philanthropy to pay tribute to his outstanding career at Redlands.
Later this month, we will celebrate Homecoming and Family Weekend, welcoming more than 1,100 alumni, parents, and friends to many fun activities and events celebrating their lifelong bond with Redlands. We hope you will consider joining us during lunch at the SURF Garden, the Redlands Regatta cardboard boat races, the annual Homecoming picnic on the Quad, or any of the other wonderful events we have planned for the weekend.
Lastly, this month marks a personal milestone for me, as I celebrate my one-year anniversary at the University. What a wonderful year it has been, and I look forward to the next 14 months as our talented Advancement team works hard to meet and exceed our goals for this campaign. Some of you receiving this message have already made gifts of your own, maybe through Giving Day or payroll deduction, and we thank you for your support. No matter what your role at Redlands, I hope you are seeing the impact that philanthropy is making for our students, faculty, and University community.
