Alumni and friends help face unexpected hardships; fundraising update

We are grateful and proud of the outstanding support Augustana has received from alumni and friends in the past year, but especially in recent weeks.

Faced with unexpected financial hardships due to the pandemic, the college reached out, and the response was humbling. We are working hard to provide the safest possible environment for our students and staff when we return to campus for in-person classes beginning Aug. 31.

Please know you play an important role in our efforts to teach and empower our students to live their best life, and we thank you.

We will share final dollar totals for fiscal year 2019-2020 in a live, virtual update slated for 5 p.m. (CDT) on July 14. More details to come. 

In the meantime, here are our current numbers:

Gerber Challenge

Murry ’75 and Cindy Gerber extended a $1 million dollar-for-dollar match this past spring. To date, we have met that challenge in securing  commitments of $1,059,011.

Thanks to loyal alumni and friends, the weeklong Augie Strong campaign at the end of May was very successful. We started with a goal of 1,000 donors, but expanded that goal twice and ultimately attracted 1,674 donors. We had 1,098 alumni donors, 177 employees, 140 parents and two students.

International Student Food Security Campaign

We recently began a small campaign to support the purchase of grocery store gift cards for about 70 international students who must remain on campus this summer without employment and access to on-campus dining.

Already we’ve raised $24,168 toward the initial goal of $20,000 from 118 donors. What a wonderful message this sends to our international students who chose Augustana to be their home away from home. If you are interested in this campaign, you can learn more here.

Abrams Challenge 2.0

Susan Nelson ’76 Abrams and Kenny Abrams offered a $1 million challenge to help Augustana increase its endowment by matching gifts, establishing new endowed funds and matching increased gifts to some existing funds. This campaign concluded just shy of the objective with $833,028 in new funds that have been matched by the Abrams.

Knowlton/Lindberg Challenge

When the Knowlton Foundation committed $8 million in support of the Peter J. Lindberg, M.D., Center for Health and Human Performance, it also issued a dollar-for-dollar $1 million challenge to the college that would increase their overall commitment to $9 million.

We’d hoped to complete this challenge in this fiscal year, but COVID-19 disrupted our efforts in this area. Yet, we have gifts and pledges of $557,424 toward this $1 million and remain optimistic about our ability to complete this challenge.

If you are in a position to give, please make a gift of any size. Because now more than ever, the world needs Augustana graduates.