When retired MSU faculty members John and Maxine Ferris caught wind of the Spartan Scholarship Challenge late last year, they spotted a unique opportunity.
The Ferrises, who already were planning on making a sizeable contribution to MSU, were informed of a program launched in October, spawned from an anonymous $10 million donation made in late April 2009 aimed at creating endowed scholarships at the university.
The donation was part of a mysterious rash of donations at the time, involving about a dozen universities and an estimated $68.5 million.
Of the anonymous donation, $7 million was reserved for creating scholarships, with the remaining money to go to general university operations.
The premise was simple: For every $2 donated to the university under the challenge program, $1 would be matched using money from the anonymous donation.
The Ferrises had a change of plans.
“When the challenge became known to us, we made some adjustments to increase what we were going to give to Michigan State that would involve the challenge,” John Ferris said.
Since its announcement in October 2009, the challenge has generated 54 endowed scholarships with donations totaling about $1.6 million.
After factoring in $800,000 in matching dollars from the initial gift, the total generated nearly a year after the gift first was announced is about $2.4 million, said Bob Groves, MSU vice president for University Advancement.
But despite these results, Groves said there still is work to be done.
A challenging progression
The scholarship challenge expires Dec. 31, and although Groves said the university is “pleased with the response so far,” it will continue working to promote the scholarship throughout the rest of 2010 in hopes of utilizing all $7 million available in matching dollars.
To become a general endowed scholarship — meaning the money will be added to MSU’s overall endowment and will be awarded to students each semester during their time at the university — at least $30,000 must be donated. Under the scholarship challenge, a donation of $20,000 is required to create an endowed scholarship after adding $10,000 in matching dollars.
Scholarships under the program are geared toward incoming students for the fall 2010 semester and primarily are aimed at need-based students.
“Having done these things in the past, it’s not unusual for them to start off relatively slowly and build up some momentum as we get closer to the end of the calendar year,” Groves said.
Now, in the nearly six months since MSU officials announced the challenge, the university has spent a majority of the time marketing the program to alumni and other donors who either have created scholarships in the past or might express interest in doing so now, he said.
University Advancement has promoted the scholarship by talking directly with donors, mailing informational literature to alumni and donors, using social networking outlets such as Twitter and other similar avenues.
“A challenge often causes people to step back and say, ‘Well, I gotta do this now,’” Groves said.
“And we’ve tried to match that with the needs of our students and the university.”
Scholarly giving
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The pool of donors who have given money under the scholarship challenge ranges from MSU alumni to current or retired faculty and staff, deans of various MSU colleges and administrators.
The Ferrises, who already had created two endowed scholarships for undergraduate students outside the challenge, ended up creating two more under the scholarship challenge.
One of the new scholarships focuses on students who both are in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Honors College. The other is geared toward students who are members of the MSU Debate Team.
The couple said they chose to create scholarships aimed at students in those areas because of their shared histories in both.
“That’s the good part. It was flexible so we could combine both our interests in the Honors College and (agriculture),” Maxine Ferris said.
“I think that they are trying to make it a very appealing kind of thing for donors.”
Another donor with close university ties is MSU Trustee Dianne Byrum, who, along with her husband, donated money under the program to create a scholarship.
“I thought it was a really interesting and unique way to leverage an anonymous donation so you end up increasing it several times over,” Byrum said.
The desired effect
Without scholarships, Rashelle Thompson wouldn’t be at MSU.
Having been raised in a small family with limited money and resources, the biochemistry and molecular biology and biotechnology freshman said there were limited financial options that would help her attend MSU.
“There’s so many students that, like me, wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the scholarships people give,” Thompson said.
As the year progresses, Groves said the university will continue marketing the scholarship challenge. He said even if all $7 million available for matching dollars has not been used by the end of the year, the money still will be used for scholarships, albeit without the challenge’s stipulations.
“It’s something that, given the state of the Michigan economy … is particularly appropriate for Michigan State at this time,” Groves said of the challenge.
“Even when the match is expired, people will still be growing these endowments. And that’s part of the objective — that the challenge will inspire people.”
