Ohio Northern University exceeds goal in most successful fundraising campaign in University history

ADA, Ohio, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ohio Northern University President Dan DiBiasio announced on Friday, June 1, the conclusion of The Campaign for Ohio Northern University's Tomorrow, which raised $110,658,961, exceeding the goal of $100 million and making it the most successful campaign in Ohio Northern's history.

The public phase of the campaign launched in fall 2008, at the beginning of the nation's slide into a historic recession. "To be sure, it is always a great achievement whenever an ambitious goal can be met and exceeded," DiBiasio said. "But to accomplish our task at a time when other colleges and universities delayed, deferred and even discontinued their campaigns makes our success even more spectacular."

Campaign leaders and the ONU administration were extremely pleased with the response from members of the ONU community and praised the accomplishments of the comprehensive campaign.

Oscar Mifsud, a 1970 ONU graduate who served as the national campaign chairman, said, "I think one of the greatest successes we've had in this campaign, aside from the financial resource we were able to raise, is this creation of a culture of giving. ONU founder H.S. Lehr's vision of a student-centered university is what truly gave us the courage and the confidence that our campaign would be successful. Our campaign was always about our students and for the love of Northern." Mifsud is president and CEO of The Mifsud Group and a resident of Wadsworth, Ohio.

The campaign focused primarily on four areas: enriching the University's academic programming, increasing student aid, improving the living-learning environment with new capital projects, and strengthening the annual support for The Northern Fund.

More than 21,000 alumni, donors and friends (nearly half of whom were first-time donors) committed support to the campaign. Overall, the campaign established 107 individually endowed funds that will begin to add more than $47 million to the University's endowment. Campaign contributions also have been critical to the University's ongoing campus-improvement efforts. Already, indicators can be seen throughout campus with the additions of the Mathile Center for the Natural Sciences, the Hanson Reading Room and the Pharmacy Skills Center.

"The successful conclusion to this campaign matters the most to our students," said DiBiasio. "They come here to discover their innate talents, explore their interests, and develop new insights into themselves and the world that we share."

SOURCE Ohio Northern University

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