Going Bold & Blue: Half-billion-dollar SDSU campaign exceeds goal early

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota State University.

The farmer’s life’s work added up to a little more than 2,600 acres.

The value of the land drawn at a public auction was almost $17 million.

The farmer had been valedictorian of his high school class but had never gone to college.

Still, he chose South Dakota State University as the heir to his estate.

“As a result, 16 students every year on our campus are now receiving $10,000 renewable scholarships,” said Steve Erpenbach, president and CEO of the SDSU Foundation.

The first class of Klingbeil Scholars was honored, along with their families, on the field at the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium during the Precision Ag Bowl in September 2022. Students receive renewable $10,000 scholarships.

“It’s just a remarkable story of a person who entrusted SDSU as the state’s land-grant university with his most prized asset,” Erpenbach said. “He was familiar with our Extension program, and we know people who knew him, but we had no idea what plan he put in place and what an amazing legacy he left.”

The No. 1 reason students can’t attend or continue college is because they can’t afford it.

So when SDSU set out to raise a record $500 million in its Bold & Blue campaign, the focus was squarely on those students and the additional programs and resources within the university that ultimately support student success.

While the farmer’s multimillion-dollar donation was a significant contributor toward reaching the goal ahead of schedule — the campaign is at $517.5 million and counting — Bold & Blue benefited from more than 30,000 donors, including many who had never given before. It’s already making an impact and adding up to much-needed support for students.

“This past fall, we gave $8.2 million in academic scholarships, and that’s almost doubled since the start of the campaign,” Erpenbach said.

We caught up with Erpenbach to learn more about the successes and priorities of the Bold & Blue campaign.

You set a big goal at $500 million. What prompted that, and what has the journey to raising it been like?

We start counting contributions for the campaign in 2017, which led to developing the $500 million goal. The last campaign, which ran from 2007 to 2013, had a goal of $200 million, and we raised $255 million. At the time, the needs were focused on capital projects, so it was improvements to facilities for everything from agriculture to engineering, health sciences and athletics. This campaign was set up as very people-centered, with a particular emphasis on endowed scholarships and leadership positions. As it turned out, fundraising during the pandemic ultimately led to an environment of people wanting to help people. Our strongest fundraising year was 2021, which included a lead commitment from First Bank & Trust of $20 million for the arena renovation. The fact that we were able to proceed and do well during that time of uncertainty was very heartening. It said so much about the generosity and loyalty of our supporters.

How would you describe the variety of people who have contributed to the campaign?

Certainly, exceeding 30,000 donors feels great, but there are many points of pride in this campaign. For instance, more than half — 55 percent — of our more than 30,000 unique donors are not SDSU alums. We think that shows a strong non-alum network that has essentially “adopted” SDSU as another alma mater. Another big factor is the broad response of One Day for STATE, our annual day of giving, which has typically received strong support from students — who are not yet alums — parents of students — who may not be alums — and faculty — who are employees but not always alums. We also have had just under 100 donors give $1 million or more, and 23,000 people have given $1,000 or less, so we reached this total based on very broad and diverse support.

Can you share some examples of what SDSU now will be able to do because of the success of the campaign?

Because we’ve grown our endowment to more than $230 million, there’s a significant uptick in what’s available for  scholarships, and it’s important for the confidence of the university as a sign of strength going forward that we’re able to offer so many scholarships to students. And in terms of endowed leadership positions, when we started the campaign, we had commitments in place for 13 of them across the campus, and we just got our 54th. So we have added 41, and they range from $1 million to $5 million in endowments that have been created or have been committed through pledges or estate gifts.

Mary DeJong and Tate Profilet helped recognize Dr. Carie Green as the first holder of the Profilet and DeJong Family Endowed Director of Early Childhood Education.

As an example, one of our latest endowed positions was the dean of the College of Pharmacy & Allied Health Professions. There’s a stature that comes with being the holder of an endowed position, so we think these will help us attract and retain top talent. And the same goes for students. We provide  scholarships based on the land-grant mission of ‘access to all.’ That ranges from the solid student with financial need to the high-achieving students who are very much coveted by other universities.

Where do you go from here? As you look ahead to next year, what are the priorities for the SDSU Foundation?

We’re going to celebrate on April 25, 2024, but the next day we’re out there fundraising, and that doesn’t end. It’s our role to continue to look at the university’s greatest needs. That’s what drives our work — what the university president and the leadership determine to be the need, whether it’s capital projects or continued growth in endowments and scholarships. I think you’ll see a strong focus on research. SDSU is now striving for Carnegie R1 research status, which would put us among the top universities nationwide based on doctoral students and research dollars. That will be a big driver for our fundraising. Scholarships and endowed leadership will continue to be a focus even after the campaign. We know there’s more work to do, but we certainly feel good about the difference we’ve already been able to make.

SDSU will continue to offer its Bold & Blue campaign into 2024 before the April celebration. To learn more and make a donation, click here.