Hitting the Mark
Three of Baylor’s academic units celebrated exciting milestones as Give Light: The Campaign for Baylor continues to generate significant support for the University’s students and academic enterprise. The Give Light campaign is Baylor’s comprehensive fundraising effort to resource the goal of becoming a Tier 1/R1 Christian research university.
Baylor Vice President for University Advancement David Rosselli said the Baylor Family has answered the University’s call for support.
“Baylor’s alumni, parents and friends are reaching out to illuminate Baylor’s path forward through the Give Light campaign,” Rosselli said. “As we keep working to fulfill the aspirations within Illuminate, it is heartening to see how our donors have come alongside our efforts to elevate Baylor as a preeminent Christian research University.”
Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor Libraries and the School of Music have eclipsed their initial Give Light campaign goals. These three separate achievements contributed to Baylor surpassing the $1 billion fundraising mark, the most the University has ever raised during a single campaign. According to Rosselli, each milestone translates to greater opportunities for Baylor students.
“Each faculty fund created by our Baylor Family contributes to resources for research and is a powerful tool for recruiting faculty leaders in their fields of study to contribute to the research and education of our students here at Baylor,” Rosselli said. “It gives us a tremendous sense of gratitude to see how our alumni find such joy in giving back and learning about the ways they can empower Baylor for the future. The gifts of our Baylor Family are making a transformational impact in the lives of our students and the trajectory of growth and advancement for the institution.”
Truett Seminary was the first academic unit to surpass its initial goal of raising $50 million in current and endowed fund support. Nearly 1,700 alumni, parents, friends and faith-based organizations have given to support everything from scholarships to the Truett Church Network to mission trips. Members of the Baylor Family have established 44 endowed scholarship funds over the course of the campaign. Increasing scholarship endowment and students’ access to current scholarships has been a priority for Truett throughout the campaign.
Significant gifts from Texas Baptists, alumni, parents and friends of Truett helped to launch the seminary’s first satellite campus at Houston’s Tallowood Baptist Church in 2018. A second satellite campus launched in 2021 at San Antonio’s Trinity Baptist Church with the first cohort of students beginning this semester. Continued efforts to raise support for scholarships and academic programs, as well as programmatic and faculty endowment, are the areas of focus as Truett continues to build on its support from the Baptist community to meet its students’ needs.
Nearly 900 alumni, parents, staff, faculty and others gave and pledged more than $10 million to Baylor Libraries, helping to surpass the initial goal through support for endowment and current funds. This gives Dean Jeffry Archer resources and flexibility to meet Baylor Libraries’ immediate needs, provide technology updates, secure research materials and improve student experience throughout the campus’s 11 libraries and research centers. It also allows for improvements to digital collections and other student resources such as the University Writing Center and HelpDesk+.
Baylor Libraries saw 10 endowed funds created, providing perpetual support for research, archiving, technology and facility support. Baylor Libraries also has seen significant support for current needs through gifts to the Dean’s Excellence Fund and programs like the Library Book Fund, which provides resources for the acquisition of new research materials for students and faculty. Such gifts provide a direct link between faculty and student success and the Baylor Family’s philanthropy.
The School of Music became the third academic school, college or academic unit to surpass its initial campaign goal of $15 million. Nearly 1,500 Baylor Family members contributed gifts and pledges to help the School of Music accomplish this goal, which creates sustaining support through gifts to endowment and meets current needs through excellence funds.
Alumni, parents and friends established 24 endowed scholarships within the School of Music, providing new resources to help faculty recruit talented musicians and singers while also strengthening resources to retain the best and brightest students. The School of Music also received an endowment gift to create the Charles W. Evans Chair in Voice Music, and programmatic support was created through three new endowed funds.