St. Scholastica reaches campaign milestone early

President Barbara McDonald announced to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on February 3 that The College of St. Scholastica has achieved its $62.6 million fundraising goal five months ahead of schedule.

“We launched the public phase of our campaign in 2021 in full hope that we could achieve our goals,” McDonald said. “Even as economic challenges emerged, our donors provided amazing support that led to this accomplishment.”

A Second Century of Saints Campaign began in 2014 under the leadership of President Larry Goodwin with an original goal of $50 million. When the public phase was unveiled in November 2021, the College announced it would extend the original goal to $62.6 million with a target conclusion date of June 30, 2023. The additional $14 million goal of the public phase includes $7 million to build a student center, $5 million for student scholarships and $2 million for emerging priorities.

At the launch, campaign co-chair Chris Dolan ’01 remarked that the campaign is “an amazing opportunity to strengthen the College, but more importantly, to support our students by enhancing the St. Scholastica experience, expanding access and ensuring success.” Now that the initial goal has been reached, he added, “our work continues. We must continue to seek private support in order to provide students at St. Scholastica with the very best experience possible.”

“It has been fantastic to see the excitement for this campaign and the student center,” said campaign co-chair Mimi Stender. “Being able to commit to this project after many years of dreaming about it is wonderful, and we are so thankful that our Saints community believes in the importance of this campaign with us.”

In announcing reaching the overall goal, President McDonald emphasized that celebrating this success is important even as the College continues active fundraising through the completion of the campaign period and beyond.

“Even though our overall goal has been reached, we still need to raise $1 million for the student center to fully fund the project. Additionally, scholarships and emerging needs to support student access and affordability will continually be a priority,” McDonald said.
The student center will break ground in May 2023 and open in time for the fall 2024 semester.

College officials are planning a campaign celebration event as part of the President’s Dinner on June 23, 2023. “It will be a time to celebrate our success and what our generous donors have done to enhance the student experience,” said Chris Mueller, vice president for College Advancement. “We are looking forward to sharing in the success of this campaign with our community.”