SMSU Honored with National CASE Fundraising Award

Published Thursday, June 25, 2020

Southwest Minnesota State University has been awarded a 2020 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Educational Fundraising Award, in the Overall Performance category.

SMSU was one of just three institutions in the country honored in its category — public comprehensive institutions with an endowment under $45 million. It is the first time SMSU has been recognized by CASE for its institutional fundraising.

The Educational Fundraising Awards recognize development programs based on a blind review of data submitted to the CASE Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey.

Winners were not selected based solely on total funds raised. A committee of experienced fundraisers reviewed hundreds of pages of data from the CASE VSE Survey. They considered a number of factors and variables, including:

Evaluation of what contributed to the total support figure
Overall breadth of fundraising
Patterns of growth in gifts from sources including alumni, other individuals, corporations, and foundations
Impact of the 12 largest gifts on total support
Giving to areas such as current operations, endowment, and property/buildings
Patterns of growth in total support
Amount raised per student
Amount raised relative to expenditures
Alumni participation

The award recognizes SMSU’s entire development group, whose areas include fundraising, prospect research, database management, gift recording and processing, accounting, and donor relations.

“The award acknowledges the good work that our development team is doing, and the support that we have across campus. We are fortunate to have a team that works closely together to support all areas of the university, is very much committed to SMSU, and has the support of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the university,” said Bill Mulso, Vice President for Advancement and Executive Director of the SMSU Foundation.