Alex Moore

The gala marking the end of SPU's fundraising campaign featured a string quartet, endive rolls and a large ice sculpture bearing the university name and torch insignia. It was also, in the words of master of ceremonies Skip Li, "a celebration that really should not have taken place."

Soon after SPU commenced a capital campaign intended to raise over $50 million, Sept. 11and the economic recession struck and President Phil Eaton described many nights when he woke up overcome with doubt.

At the March 29 gala, Eaton revealed the final numbers: the Campaign for Seattle Pacific University exceeded its $52.85 million goal by over $3 million, for a total of $55,875,000 raised over the course of the past six-and-a-half years.

The total is the largest for any campaign in SPU history, and brings with it a host of other record-setting numbers.

--Almost 16,000 people donated, twice as many as the last campaign, and 4,000 of those were first-time SPU donors.

--The average gift size doubled to $1,116.

--Faculty and staff contributions rose 250 percent.

--In the last campaign, there was one donor who gave a gift of more than $1 million; in this campaign there were 16.

--Sixty-four donors gave $100,000 or more, including physics professor Robert Hughson and President Eaton himself.

And 465 students donated, a number mentioned several times by speakers at the gala and again by Vice President of University Advancement Bob McIntosh in a phone interview.

"It was an incredible, almost emotional thing for me to see," he said.

The Campaign was divided into five separate initiatives, each designed to raise money for a different aspect of the university.

The largest initiative raised a total of $29.4 million for SPU's endowment, $8.4 million more than the original goal. A university's endowment is a pool of donated money that both guarantees that the school has assets independent of inflation and also is invested so as to provide continuous income for the school. The larger the endowment, the more money the school has for scholarships and academic programs.

Although the campaign raised almost $30 million, two-thirds of that amount is in the form of wills and other deferred gifts, and so will not begin working for the school until later.

The $9.7 million in current gifts, however, raises SPU's endowment to $28.5 million, which means that next year SPU students will see $1.1 million available for scholarships and academic programs, according to the Report to Contributors.

Two other initiatives also exceeded their goals. The University Fund Initiative raised $8.7 million for unrestricted student scholarships, and the Restricted Annual Fund Initiative received $7.6 million in gifts that donors designated for specific uses within the university, such as money for the women's soccer program and a collection of folk instruments.

The economy, however, did take its toll, McIntosh said, and two of the initiatives did not manage to meet their goals.

The goal of the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development Initiative, McIntosh said, was to create both a center to encourage Christian scholarship and several endowed chairs, positions in academic departments funded in perpetuity by endowments.

In the beginning, a number of people had expressed interest in making donations of $1 million or more, McIntosh said, but after the economic downturn following Sept. 11, many of them found themselves unable to spare the money, leaving the initiative almost $4 million short of the $11 million goal.

The money was enough to create the Center for Scholarship and Academic Development, which has brought numerous speakers such as Stephen Carter and John Medina to SPU, but according to the Report to Contributors, will have to be supplemented in order to continue expansion of Center programming.

The Science Initiative, which primarily raised money for science equipment, also suffered, losing potential donors from economic hardship.

"We had talked to two major donors before we launched the campaign who had indicated that they would be able to underwrite that full initiative," McIntosh said. But in the end, they simply didn't have the money to give.

The bright side, McIntosh said, is that the problem was a lack of ability to give and not a lack of desire.

"I think many of these people will be here for SPU in the future," he said.

And one reason for that, he said, is the student body.

"Time and time again during this campaign, I've had donors giving to this school because of the students, and they comment on the students and how impressed they are," he said. "The way the conduct themselves on and off campus is having a major impact on this city. They may not be around to benefit from it, but it bodes well for the future generations of student who come to this school."