FAYETTEVILLE -- Gifts totaled $131.6 million to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for the 12-month period that ended June 30, the university announced Thursday.
Giving increased by 13 percent over the $116.5 million fundraising total announced a year earlier.
The amount includes cash, gifts-in-kind, planned gifts and new pledges, and is the highest total for UA since the $238 million raised in fiscal year 2005, the final year of a fundraising effort known as Campaign for the Twenty-First Century.
Next month, UA will host a series of events for the public kick-off of another multiyear fundraising drive, Campaign Arkansas. The effort has a working goal of raising $1 billion, with an official target yet to be announced.
The $131.6 million total includes $50.3 million in gifts for athletics and to the Razorback Foundation, the public charity that supports UA's intercollegiate athletics.
The university plans on expanding and renovating Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium at the end of the upcoming football season. In June, athletic director Jeff Long told University of Arkansas System trustees that "signed commitments" existed for "over $20 million of capital investments in this project for new suites in the stadium."
The construction project is expected to cost about $160 million, not including interest and other expenses associated with a planned $120 million bond issue.
The recently ended fiscal year marked the last for Chris Wyrick, formerly UA's top fundraising officer. He stepped down from his role as vice chancellor Aug. 1 after he and Chancellor Joe Steinmetz "mutually agreed that resignation was the best course of action," according to an Aug. 1 statement from Steinmetz.
Wyrick took over the university's advancement division on July 1, 2013. He was later accused by the university's former spokesman of making "inappropriate statements," according to university documents. Wyrick had acknowledged making some such remarks, such as calling someone "brother Honky" and making a remark about Catholics that offended the former spokesman, but promised "it will not happen again."
Under a settlement agreement, Wyrick continues to be paid his salary through November while accepting assignments from home. He earns a salary of $310,000 annually, or $25,833.33 monthly, according to his most recent salary letter.
Steinmetz, in a statement Thursday, called private gift support "critically important to our campus as it adds to the academic opportunities available to our faculty, staff and students."
Of the total raised, 35 percent came from corporations, 32 percent from individuals, 26 percent from foundations and 7 percent from other organizations, including trusts and estates. The 2015 Voluntary Support of Education survey found that 14.3 percent of all giving to higher education came from corporations.
The total number of gifts, 98,464, was the most ever for UA, according to the university, with the gifts coming from 52,737 benefactors.
Mark Power, interim vice chancellor for university advancement, said the upcoming Campaign Arkansas public launch has already helped with fundraising.
"That's really generating a lot of excitement," Power said.
With the public campaign, UA expects to "get out even more" to share details of how gifts support students, said Power, who took over as the interim leader for the university's advancement division upon Wyrick stepping down. A UA spokesman said no decision has been made about filling Wyrick's role permanently.
The university provided a breakdown of who benefits from university gifts, with 41 percent of the total going to help students and programs; 41 percent for capital improvements; 12 percent to help faculty and staff; and the remaining 6 percent for other initiatives.
A $2.4 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation was the single-largest gift announced publicly in fiscal year 2016. The money helped establish the Accelerated Student Achievement Program for first-generation and low-income students from the Delta region and eastern part of the state.
The program gives an early start to about 80 incoming freshmen, allowing them to enroll in basic courses for credit while living on the UA campus.
Out of the fundraising total, about $19.2 million will go to endowed funds, increasing UA's overall endowment. An updated endowment figure was not released Thursday, but last October the university said its endowment had increased to $948.7 million.
UA in March held its first online crowdfunding event, which raised about $168,404.75 from approximately 993 donors over a time period of 1,871 minutes, or a little over 31 hours. The event, publicized through social media, was held to celebrate the university's founding in 1871, and another crowdfunding "birthday" event is planned for next year.
Noah Drezner, an associate professor at Columbia University who studies giving in higher education, said in an email that more schools are using crowdfunding and "days of giving," especially to reach out to young alumni.
"These social media fundraising campaigns are often successful since there is a sense of peer pressure when you see friends post about their gifts," Drezner said.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Hammersly of the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette.
Metro on 08/19/2016