Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Urbana surpasses fundraising goal, prepares for next campaign

James H. Moore, U. of I. Foundation president since July 1, said there is much work to be done if the university is to meet its goal of doubling fundraising totals in the next decade.

Moore said he has been in “listening mode” since the start of his tenure and already sees several areas where systems and processes could be improved.

“Part of the road map is to advance the advancement model,” he told trustees at the July 23 board of trustees meeting. “To do that, you have to be working together.”

To that end, the foundation is replacing outdated data systems and will be making other technical upgrades. Moore said those systems are being tested in the run-up to the next fundraising campaign, which is set to coincide with the university’s sesquicentennial in 2017.

He said the foundation also is engaging with the campus chancellors and vice chancellors to ensure the developing fundraising agenda is in line with the university’s Strategic Plan.

To meet the ambitious and necessary fundraising goals, Moore said the foundation and the campuses are developing more effective modes of outreach for directly engaging alumni and other donors.

“We will need to engage donors in ways we haven’t before,” he said. “That’s one of the many things we’ll all be working on.”

Moore presented the recently finalized fundraising statistics for fiscal year 2015, which show an overall 11.3 percent increase in new business compared to last year.

The Urbana campus led the way with $219.3 million in new business, up 13.7 percent over last year and 4.4 percent above its goal.

Urbana also surpassed its cash goal of $175 million by raising $181.1 million. The goal for 2016 is $202 million.

Following the release of the statistics, Dan Peterson, the vice chancellor for institutional advancement and a senior vice president for the U. of I. Foundation, said that fundraising efforts are moving in the right direction.

“We have a strong working partnership with our colleagues at the foundation,” he said. “There has been an increased focus and discipline that everyone is bringing to the advancement enterprise, and it already is paying dividends.”

Read Next

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Nishant Garg, center, is joined by fellow researchers, from left: Yujia Min, Hossein Kabir, Nishant Garg, center, Chirayu Kothari and M. Farjad Iqbal, front right. In front are examples of clay samples dissolved at different concentrations in a NaOH solution. The team invented a new test that can predict the performance of cementitious materials in mere 5 minutes. This is in contrast to the standard ASTM tests, which take up to 28 days. This new advance enables real-time quality control at production plants of emerging, sustainable materials. Photo taken at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Researchers develop a five-minute quality test for sustainable cement industry materials

A new test developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can predict the performance of a new type of cementitious construction material in five minutes — a significant improvement over the current industry standard method, which takes seven or more days to complete. This development is poised to advance the use of next-generation resources called supplementary cementitious materials — or SCMs — by speeding up the quality-check process before leaving the production floor.

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010