The Northern Michigan University Foundation has released a five-year impact report on strategic changes implemented to support fundraising for NMU. The report details enhancements in four focus areas that put the NMU Foundation in a better position to secure and manage major gifts to support innovative strides in learning, teaching, programming and operations.
“We are evolving a sophisticated approach to conduct the type of fundraising we are capable of producing,” said Brad Canale, CEO of the NMU Foundation since 2016. “Working together with campus partners, we have identified fundraising objectives and designed a strategic plan for transformational fundraising at NMU.
The NMU Foundation has made programmatic improvements in the areas of finance, fundraising, and donor relations/stewardship. It also enhanced institutional support through the addition of a dedicated staff position to promote a centralized, holistic approach to promoting corporate and institutional partnerships.
NMU Alumni Relations has responded with increasing engagement opportunities for alumni, which number more than 73,000 worldwide. This has been accomplished through a more robust social media presence and communications effort; a reinvigorated events schedule; and increased collaboration with NMU Career Services to leverage alumni connections for job and professional development opportunities for current students.
“The culmination of strategic planning by staff, oversight by the Foundation Board, and the implementation of creative approaches from our partner at Morgan Stanley, have resulted in achieving the financial milestone of exceeding $50 million in total market value,” said John List'84, NMU Foundation Board President. “This important benchmark puts us in a strong financial position going forward, opening up diverse investment opportunities for the Foundation.”
“We've built upon a solid foundation and made the essential changes to evolve and adapt,” Canale said. “Funds given to Northern transform lives, as evidenced by our high percentage of graduates who are first-generation college students. We believe that a gift to Northern goes further and makes a greater impact than it may make elsewhere. The affinity for Northern is strong among our alumni and friends, and we are enthusiastic about donor investment opportunities at NMU.”
The report was recently presented to the NMU Board of Trustees, along with the alumni and foundation boards. For more information, visit NMU Foundation.