The Ball State University Foundation has raised more than $11.5 million in the first half of the year, almost 70 percent of the amount raised all of last year, according to its mid-year report.
"We're excited about the future and greater support," Ben Hancock, vice president for university advancement, said.
While donations to the foundation are on pace to surpass last year's totals, the number of donors is behind the pace set in previous years, Hancock said. The number of donors also decreased in the 2006-2007 year from the 2005-2006 year, he said.
Hancock said several factors were attributed to the decrease in donors. He said economic trends were causing the number of contributors to decrease at universities across the nation. He did not expect the decline to be long term, he said.
The amount of donations decreased last year as well, he said. Ball State received more than $38.5 million during the 2005-2006 year and less than half that last year.
"It may look like we're in a downward spiral, but we're not," he said. "05-06 was an anomaly."
He said a "very unusual" $19.9 million gift from the Lilly Endowment in 2006-2007 skewed the numbers.
Hancock said he expected the trend for the amount of donations to increase.
As with most universities, most of the donors are alumni, he said. In the first half of the year alumni gave more than $3 million, he said. Other donations came from friends of the university and corporations, he said.
Hancock said the Hamer and Phyllis Shafer Foundation committed $1 million to Ball State over the next few years. The George and Frances Ball Foundation committed $10.5 million to the university over the next few years, he said.
When alumni donate they can request the money go toward any fund they would like such as the general fund, athletics or scholarships, he said. The general fund is available for anything that needs to be done that does not have a specific fund designated such as providing supplies for departments, Hancock said.
David Bahlmann, president and CEO of the Ball State University Foundation, said the university received a lot of its contributions from the "planned-giving program." The program is for people to leave money to Ball State when they die, he said. Several donors have left substantial gifts in the past few years.
Bahlmann said the biggest donation was from Wallace Miller in 1998. He left more than $17 million to Ball State's Miller College of Business, he said. Ball State renamed it the Miller College of Business after the donation, he said.
Bahlmann said the foundation received all donation money and had four primary functions. It receives and records all of the donations to Ball State, administers the gifts as instructed by the donors, invests the money and, along with Hancock and others, runs the planned giving program.
"We are partners with the university, but their hard work brought all the gifts," Bahlmann said.
Hancock said Ball State sought to get alumni attention because they were the "grass-roots support" of the donations. Dozens of billboards, e-mails and the alumnus magazine keep potential contributors informed about the direction the university is going, and how they can be involved, he said.
"Our outreach is pretty extensive," he said. "One of our priorities is to get the word out to alumni."
Hancock said philanthropy had built and sustained momentum.
"It's a very exciting time," Bahlmann said. "There's real enthusiasm for Ball State right now."
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