NDSU Foundation 2023 Year in Review

Fargo, N.D. — Alumni, friends, businesses, and charitable organizations contributed nearly $53 million in new philanthropic support through the North Dakota State University Foundation in the year ending Dec. 31, 2023. These new investments fueled the Foundation’s endowment value to more than $464.2 million, an all-time high.

The Foundation is the University’s primary philanthropic and alumni engagement organization, legally separate from NDSU, but working in close partnership to advance priorities and investment opportunities for benefactors to become involved with.

Benefactors stepped up to make gifts in several areas, taking full advantage of the North Dakota Challenge Grant program to support scholarships and named faculty positions. Nearly $15 million was raised for the new Center for Engineering and Computational Sciences facility. Support was especially strong for the colleges of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources and Engineering, given several key priorities the team worked on in those areas. NDSU Giving Day was a record setter with more than $2.2 million raised.

Benefactors also responded to our requests to support NDSU’s response to the Minnesota North Star Promise program to establish the NDSU Tuition Award Program. These new dollars combined with unrestricted resources from the Foundation to provide two years of funding to help recruit and retain Pell-eligible students from Minnesota and North Dakota.

It was a fantastic year for current gifts and sending in cash. The Foundation recorded $49.5 million in cash receipts, which came from a combination of pledge payments from prior year gift commitments and outright gifts during the year. This year now stands as our third highest cash receipt year on record, following only 2021 and 2019, respectively.

Thanks to a strong year in fundraising and in the markets, the Foundation’s endowment ended the year at $464.2 million. For comparison, 10 years ago, the endowment valued at $129.1 million, as of Dec. 31, 2014. This strong track record of fundraising for endowment dollars and market returns positions our support to campus for even greater levels in the future. More than 99% of the endowment is permanently restricted according to donor intent. Adhering to donor intent is paramount in maintaining trust and accountability with benefactors.

The Foundation’s most important measure of effectiveness is in “support to campus.” These are the dollars that are transferred and spent by campus administering authorities according to the designations donor’s document. More than $37.57 million was transferred to NDSU to support scholarships, faculty, facilities/equipment, and programs.

Since the beginning of 2014, the Foundation has transferred $223.3 million in support to campus.

For more information on how you can get involved and make a difference, please visit www.ndsufoundation.com.

ABOUT NDSU FOUNDATION

The NDSU Foundation builds enduring relationships that maximize advocacy and philanthropy to support North Dakota State University.

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CONTACT
Bethany Hardwig 
Vice President of Alumni and Donor Connections 
NDSU Foundation 
412-477-9202
bethany.hardwig@ndsufoundation.com 

Margaret and her husband, Hugh Veit ’79, established the Eleanor S. Fitzgerald Memorial Graduate Student Scholarship to support NDSU students earning advanced degrees in the Department of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences or the Department of Human Development and Family Science.

Core areas of home economics remain part of current NDSU degree programs such as accounting; apparel, retail merchandising, and design; education; family and consumer science; financial planning; human development and family science; interior design; and nutrition science.

Home economics programs opened doors, particularly for women, to earn college degrees and pursue careers in education, Extension, state and federal government, business and industry, health care, and more. NDAC listed domestic economy as one of its courses in its founding year, 1890.

Established by Dr. Teresa Conner, dean of the NDSU College of Health and Human Sciences, and co-chaired by Dr. Margaret Fitzgerald ’83 and Col. Esther Meyers ’75, the Wisdom Keepers provide support and share their knowledge and expertise with students, faculty, staff, and leadership in the College.

The home management house at NDAC was the first facility built on a college campus specifically for home management practice. In 1954, it was named in honor of Alba Bales, the first female academic dean at NDAC.