Cal State Long Beach total fundraising for the 2007-08 academic year reached $34 million, a $6.6 million increase from the previous year’s donations.
The fundraising efforts are considered to have reached a pinnacle as “the most successful year in CSULB’s 59-year history,” according to a prepared statement by the university’s Office of Public Affairs.
CSULB’s College of the Arts received a whopping $16.4 million in a single donation alone, the university’s largest single donation to date. This contribution from the Bob Cole Trust is meant to provide scholarships for student musicians — 25 or so of which the money is already being provided.
Furthermore, CSULB is working to rename the Department of Music as the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in appreciation of his donation and philanthropy.
Other donations CSULB has received $1.25 million from alumnus Terry Rhodes has gone to improve campus tennis facilities and provide a tennis scholarship to its students.
Physical improvements will also be made to the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center made by an anonymous donor.
Last year, the university received grants from Long Beach Memorial Foundation for the CSULB Nursing Program, the Institute of International Education for the campus’ Strategic Language Initiative and the Archstone Foundation for the California Labor Force in Geriatric Social Work effort at the university, according to a prepared statement.
Among the many foundations and organizations that have supported CSULB and its various academic programs, more than 80 percent of this year’s funds had come from individual donors.
“More than 25,000 individuals contributed to CSULB over 2007-08, many of who made significant donations,” said Toni Beron, CSULB’s vice president of university relations. Although each individual donor determines the way their contribution to the university is used, during the past academic year funds have been used for ” … capital improvements, scholarships, support of international education, support of academic programs, and support of athletic programs,”
