BVU Annual Fund Gifts Lauded by National Education Leader: CASE
Increased investment from alumni, friends, and community allows BVU to support dreams of students. Growing Annual Fund contributions highlighted in national award.
Buena Vista University joined an elite group of colleges and universities this year in earning the 2019 CASE Educational Fundraising Award.
“BVU is among a select group of more than 90 colleges and universities receiving awards this year,” says Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) President and CEO Sue Cunningham. “Buena Vista University is being recognized for Overall Improvement based on the judges’ blind analysis of three years of fundraising data submitted to CASE’s AMAtlas Voluntary Support of Education Survey.”
CASE officials welcomed BVU into this group of distinguished honorees, indicating it may represent the first time the University has been feted in this manner.
"With the increased investment from our alumni, friends, and the community, we’re able to support the dreams of many students who thought higher education may have been beyond their grasp."
Zachary Rus
The award continued a string of success made possible by Buena Vista University alumni and friends who have stepped up repeatedly in the past year. The University opened a renovated Siebens Forum, made possible through the generosity and vision of donors. BVU also launched the Center for Agriculture, Food, and Resource Management, and started the new Center for Criminal Justice Studies.
Along the way, annual gifts helped outfit the new BVU Marching Band and its pep band counterpart, BVU Blue Steel.
BVU students traveled domestically and abroad in near-record numbers, visiting countries across the globe as worlds of learning and service opportunities expanded-another direct result of these valuable gifts, which, in total, helped BVU surpass its Annual Fund goal. Since Fiscal 2017, donors to the BVU Annual Fund have boosted their contributions by more than $20,000-gifts that ensure BVU has state-of-the-art facilities for classes, top-flight faculty, abundant scholarship offerings, and more.
“With the increased investment from our alumni, friends, and the community, we’re able to support the dreams of many students who thought higher education may have been beyond their grasp,” says Zachary Rus, assistant vice president of University Development and Alumni Engagement. “Being recognized for our improvement in fundraising is humbling and seeing how this important work can change lives thanks to donations is inspiring.”
CASE Educational Fundraising Awards recognize exemplary fundraising programs and activities. BVU, according to the organization, has not only demonstrated the highest levels of professionalism and best practices in its efforts, but it has also contributed to the betterment of educational advancement worldwide by serving as a model to which others may aspire.
“Congratulations on this outstanding achievement,” Cunningham says. “On behalf of everyone at CASE, thank you for all that you do to advance education to transform lives.”