Nearly tripling the private support dollars from the last year, the amount of total new gift commitments have surpassed the goal for the year, according to the projected end of year results for 2005 ?” 06 compiled by the Office of University Advancement.

For the last eight to 10 years, we’ve only met the goal once, said Carole Hayashino, vice president of University Advancement.

Individuals, alumni, corporations and foundations contributed to the total – including $10 million from Alex G. Spanos for the construction of the Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex.

Nearly $16 million was raised in new gift commitments, exceeding the initial Philanthropic Productivity Goal of about $14 million, according to the report.

The largest portion ?” 53 percent ?” will be spent on capital projects, which mainly includes the Broad Athletic Facility, a new project in the Library and theater renovations.

The rest of the dollars will be divided among scholarships in several academic departments, while a small portion will go toward athletics and the Library.

The official report will be submitted to the CSU Chancellor’s Office Oct. 6.

The fundraising goal for each CSU campus is established by the Chancellor’s Office.

The goal used to be a standard 10 percent of the general fund allocation, but the system changed to accomodate for new CSUs, such as San Marcos and Monterey Bay, which have different levels of advancement and development programs Hayashino said.

It’s unrealistic for them to have a 10 percent goal because they’re very young and don’t have an alumni base, Hayashino said.

While development is relatively new at Sac State, the campus has been struggling with meeting private funding goals in the past.

Last year $7 million was raised ?” half of the amount of this year, according to the Philanthropic Productivity Report.

For the past two years we’ve worked to rebuild the development operations on this campus and I think because of that we’ve had a successful year this last year, Hayashino said.

Vince Sales, associate vice president of University Development, credits the success to the vision of Destination 2010.

I think President (Alexander) Gonzalez has really set a great vision for the university to become a destination campus and people out there in the community….are excited about the vision and want to help, Sales said.

People in the community are proud of Sac State, so funding programs were built to develop relationships with alumni and generate support in the community, Hayashino said.

University Development employs about 20 students each year to make phone calls to alumi to solicit and set up gift commitments, Hayashino said.

Grant letters and proposals are also regularly written to major corporations and foundations to generate large sums of support.

Most of the development staff are called major gift officers, and they work with alumi donating $10,000 or more, Hayashino said.

One program is the President’s Executive Committee, which is a group of major gift donors that offer the campus president input, general guidance and leadership in regards to the construction of the Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex.

Another program is the President’s Circle, which was created to offer recognition for donors who make annual unrestricted donations of $1,500 or more, said Frank Whitlatch, associate vice President of Public Affairs.

The perks of being a part of the President’s Circle include recognition dinners, parking permits and personal meetings with the president.

But the perks are not like membership benefits to where donors get tickets to shows in exchange for a certain amount of money given, Hayashino said.

“It’s very philanthropic,” she said.

Mary Chou can be reached at [email protected]