Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has launched its largest-ever fundraising campaign.
Called “The Power of Doing: The Campaign for Learn by Doing,” the university hopes to raise $700 million by June 2021.
To date, Cal Poly has raised more than $556 million from 51,000 donors during the first seven years of the campaign. Friday’s Evening of Green & Gold event at Cal Poly marked the kickoff of the public phase of the fundraising campaign.
“Typically a campaign will run anywhere from 7-10 years,” explained Matthew Ewing, Vice President of Development and Alumni Engagement and Cal Poly Foundation CEO. “You have that silent phase to really build the momentum, build the story, what is the campaign about. And so that’s the work that’s taken place under the great guidance, leadership and partnership of our Cal Poly Foundation board and now is the time to launch that. The public phase is about inviting more people to the table, opening our doors and bring them back into the family.”
“Cal Poly has thrived, ‘Learn by Doing’ has been around for years, but for ‘Learn by Doing’ to thrive we need the support of our alumni and donors to move things forward, so we are very excited about the campaign,” said Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong.
University officials say the funds raised will support three pillars: Empowering Students, Empowering Excellence, and Empowering Innovation.
Money raised will reportedly be used for state-of-the-art facilities and expansion of student-faculty research, as well as increasing scholarship opportunities.
“The really cool thing about Cal Poly and ‘Learn by Doing’ is every person at Cal Poly deeply cares about student success, whether they are directly involved with ‘Learn by Doing’ or they may be supporting financial aid in the background, or they may be making sure the students are safe through our wonderful University Police Department. Everybody’s focused on student success… and the campaign has launched that to a higher level,” Armstrong said.
To learn more about the campaign, visit https://giving.calpoly.edu/.
