WWU announces $60M fundraising campaign

Friday afternoon, in front of a campus-wide audience, Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard officially launched a $60 million fundraising campaign, the largest in the history of the university.

A special dinner on Friday in Bellingham celebrated the launch, and two Seattle-based events, a business forum meeting on Nov. 6 and gala dinner on Nov. 7, will take the campaign fully public.

“This campaign represents a historic opportunity for Western and our ability to serve the needs of Washington, the region and the world,” said Western President Bruce Shepard. “While enabling us to expand access to Western’s distinctive excellence through scholarships, the campaign also builds on our unique strengths in teacher education, the STEM fields, environmental science and more, to prepare graduates to tackle the most pressing issues of the 21st century.”

The goal of the transformative $60 million Western Stands for Washington campaign – a multi-year, fundraising effort that is already impacting Western students, faculty and programs alike – is to affirm Western as one of Washington’s top universities, while extending its reach regionally and internationally.

At this stage, 60 percent of the $60 million target has already been reached – the running total recently passed more than $48 million – and the ongoing fundraising success encompasses an impressive range of alumni, faculty and community-generated philanthropy.

Contributions reflect the breadth and depth of what Western offers to its students, faculty and wider community as a diverse, dynamic public university. These include: a $1 million cash gift in support of Western’s new Institute for Energy Studies; a six-figure gift that has already established a Western-based international center for entrepreneurship; a multi-million dollar estate gift that will benefit, among others, the music, economics and biology departments; and a $1.5 million bequest for pre-med students.

The Western Stands for Washington campaign is being directed by the Western Washington University Foundation.

To find out more about the campaign, please visit the campaign website at WWU4WA.org.