Niagara University’s long-running fundraising initiative is nearly complete, a success beyond what its organizers hoped.
The school announced Thursday its Powering Transformation campaign had raised a total of over $130 million, becoming the largest such campaign in school history.
“We have much to be proud of and celebrate, but we are just beginning,” said NU President Rev. James Maher. “When our mission meets your generosity, God’s abundance is able to multiply our good works and impact.”
First starting in 2016, the campaign’s goal was to raise $125 million by the end of 2023. A total of 9,412 people donated to the school, 4,645 of them being alumni donors and 4,823 being first-time donors.
“We knew it would be a challenge,” said Jeff Holzschuh, the campaign’s chairman who, with his wife Mary Helen, donated $10 million to support the trustee scholarship program. “But we knew it was worth challenging ourselves to do so. It was a commitment to excellence, innovation and to the future of the university.”
Of the $130 million raised, $60 million comes from cash gifts, $22 million comes from pledge gifts, and $48 million comes from donors naming Niagara University in their estate plans. The donors span the class years of 1937 to freshman students in the class of 2027, and hail from nearly all U.S., Ontario and the Virgin Islands.
The donations include 32 gifts of $1 million or more, 106 gifts of $100,000 or more, and 162 gifts of at least $25,000. More than $30 million has been pledged for current-use and endowed scholarships.
Jaclyn Rossi Drozd, the vice president of Institutional Advancement, said that any donation made between June 1, 2016, and May 31, 2024, will count toward the campaign. These donations touched on 400 different areas of the Niagara University community, ranging from funding scholarships and faculty research initiatives to campus facility enhancements, student clubs, and experiential opportunities for students.
“Our intent is to make that (student experience) the best as possible,” Drozd said.
Previously announced projects and grants since this initiative started in 2016 include:
• Opening a new science research lab in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, focusing on STEM research
• Creating endowed positions in chemistry, pre-professional health, food industry innovation and supply chain excellence, race equality and mission, and theatre and vocal performance
• Reestablishing the College of Nursing
• Starting a family nurse practitioner master’s degree program
• $11.5 million of upgrades to the Kiernan Recreation Center
• $3.5 million from Bill and Nancy Gacioch to funding internship programs at the renamed Gacioch Center for Career & Professional Development
• $500,000 from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation workforce training for nurses and Erie County probation officers
• $10 million from Holzschuh and his wife Mary Helen for the trustee scholarship program in the College of Nursing and renamed Holzschuh College of Business Administration
• $5 million for creating the Lois Lyon Brennan Scholars program
• An undisclosed amount from Russell J. Salvatore toward an $8 million renovation of the renamed Russell J. Salvatore Dining Commons
The NU campus in Vaughan, Ontario, created in 2019, will also expand by 18,000 square feet while adding new masters degree programs in criminal justice administration and disaster/emergency management and national security.
Maher said the campaign’s success is a miracle, calling on this generosity to continue.
“Let us continue to commit ourselves to a culture of philanthropic giving that continues to power transformation, in the words of St. Vincent DePaul,” Maher said. “May God continue to bless our work to allow the miracle of Niagara University to continue to evolve.”