Thrive projects funded ahead of schedule

The Thrive campaign initiative has reached its halfway goal ahead of schedule, promising students completed projects sooner than expected.

“Thrive’s called The Complete Campaign because the idea is that we really don’t want to talk about a big, ambiguous pot of money,” Director of Advancement Operations Will Blanchard said. “With Thrive, what we really wanted to do was give people tangible things that they could see and feel and get excited about. It’s less about the dollars and more about the projects.”

With almost $17.2 million raised, more than 6,000 unique donors and the completion of nine key projects, Blanchard said fundraising is more than four months ahead of schedule in its three-year campaign.

Among ongoing projects, Blanchard said there are three main objectives for Thrive fundraising before Dec. 31: campus café reboot, Common Grounds Coffee Shop and unrestricted match.

Students voted for $275,000 to be allocated toward the campus café reboot about one year ago in an effort to jumpstart the renovation. The Mabee Foundation agreed to donate $1 million to the cafeteria remodel and Common Grounds Coffee Shop if donors give a combined $4,647,209 to these projects by Jan. 22, 2016.

Blanchard said the combined projects require $5 million, which Thrive still needs $1.6 million to complete.

“I promise you will see in January an announcement that we’ve raised all the money for the cafeteria and the coffee shop,” Blanchard said. “That will be committed money – it will not necessarily be cash in the door. So, we won’t actually start building those projects until we get the cash.”

According to Blanchard, the funding of these projects does not automatically begin the construction phase, as other factors play a part in their completion timeline.

“A project like the cafeteria is going to take several months to build, so we want to make sure that the timing there is right and that we do that in a thoughtful way – so that the students that are enduring the construction phase have a good experience as we are beautifying things and making them better,” Blanchard said.

Aside from the cafeteria remodel and the future coffee shop, Blanchard said a main project in Thrive is the 2015-2016 unrestricted match, in which all gifts double.

The goal for this project is to raise $2.5 million in general funding that will be matched by another $2.5 million from anonymous donors – totaling $5 million in unrestricted funds by May 2016.

“Unrestricted dollars are kind of like jet fuel for the university because they can do anything,” Blanchard said. “Donor intent says if a donor says this is for this – that’s what we use it for. Unrestricted dollars go anywhere.”

Throughout the year, Blanchard said there are various projects that are donated to or funded that are not within the major projects outlined in Thrive. These projects are reflected on the website in the off-menu section and includes over 200 projects annually.

“Believe it or not, most of them are very small and it just kind of balloons up,” Blanchard said. “People giving to athletics, people giving to scholarships, people giving to departments and programs, and that kind of all builds up.”

Blanchard said he is open to student input and ideas for projects, and he wants students to take advantage of the opportunity Thrive offers to be part of the decisions.

Previous campaigns were focused on sharing information and seeking funds from alumni, which limited the pool of donors, according to Blanchard.

“Thrive is about that too, but previous campaigns have kind of done that to the exclusion of the student body – we haven’t really involved the students, which I’d argue is a mistake,” Blanchard said. “You’re the ones that are the most directly impacted by what we’re doing. … To get you engaged now, get you dreaming, get you excited about what’s happening and how it happens – I think is really important.”

Blanchard said he wants students to be more involved with Thrive.

“We have to do what is missionally core and what is strategically relevant for the university, but we don’t have all the right answers all the time,” Blanchard said. “You never know when that might spark a conversation at the leadership level that makes us say that is true. So, I’d just encourage the students to talk and share with leadership about what they want to see for the university, what’s a priority for them, to stay in touch with Thrive.”

To submit ideas for projects, visit the Thrive website.

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