The Forever LSU campaign exceeded its $750 million fundraising goal, raising $787 million by the end of October.
Forever LSU director Beverly Major announced the results Friday at Lod Cook Alumni Center. Members of Forever LSU, the LSU Foundation, the LSU Alumni Association and LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation joined donors, legislators and University administrators, deans, faculty and students to hear of the campaign’s success.
The campaign was launched publicly in June 2006 and has provided the University with funds for professors, students, infrastructure and research.
Former U.S. Rep. and campaign chairman Henson Moore said nothing could be more important than the four years he has spent raising money for the University.
“Nobody thought we could meet [the goal],” Moore said. “Experts said, ‘You may be able to raise $500 million.'”
Moore said only 1 percent of the donations were unspecified. That means 99 percent were donated for a certain purpose, like student scholarships or construction of a particular building.
Moore said 38 endowed chairs, 426 professorships and 794 endowed scholarships were created with Forever LSU donations, in addition to what the University already has.
Moore said 24,000 alumni, 6,500 corporations, 26,000 “friends of LSU” and 1,300 faculty gave to the campaign.
Of private contributions, 54 percent came from individuals, 30 percent came from corporations and 16 percent came from foundations. But Moore said the generous contributions are not meant to relieve the state of support for the University.
“Contributions are not a substitute for the basic budget support LSU needs from the state,” Moore said.
Moore said the University has raised its standards, expectations and performance.
“We know where we rank in baseball. We know where we rank in football,” Moore said. “We need to get the message out where we rank in academics.”
Moore cited an increasing graduation rate of 61 percent, $152 million in grants last year, research output climbing into the “upper echelons” and the University’s consecutive three-year ranking in U.S. News and World Report’s top tier.
“We said we’d raise the expectations for our students in Louisiana,” Moore said. “We’ve raised standards and given them a university that complies with those standards.”
The final weeks of Forever LSU’s campaign will focus on the priority of student support, according to a news release. Need and merit-based scholarships like Pelican Promise provide the ability for nearly 1,500 students to attend the University, according to the release.
“The moral of the story for the future of LSU is going to have to be more grants and more private contributions,” Moore said. “So to all of the alumni sitting here — the one thing we have to take away from this is we can do it, we have done it, and we’re going to have to do it again.”
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]