Tag Archives: Sesquicentennial

A New Year and a New Campaign Milestone

Happy New Year! As the new year and new semester begin, I want to update you on our Great Returns campaign.

In the last month of 2020, the Augsburg Community’s generosity continued to thrive despite the challenges of this past year. In fact, on the last day of the 2020, Augsburg received nearly 400 gifts totaling about $500,000. I am inspired by the commitment of the Augsburg community to ensure our students thrive. This outpouring of philanthropy has aided us in reaching a new milestone in our fundraising effort to build the Augsburg endowment. We now have raised more than $63 million in gifts and pledges!

We have also reached a new milestone in our student scholarship efforts. As part of the Great Returns campaign, we set an ambitious goal of securing 150 new scholarships in honor of the 150th anniversary of Augsburg’s founding. As of January 1, 2021, benefactors have established 97 new scholarships which make an Augsburg education possible for more students.

As we celebrate these milestones, I would like to lift up a few stories of generous benefactors.

While this has been an extraordinarily challenging year, I wanted you to know that the generosity of the Augsburg community has continued to change lives in powerful ways. I am grateful to everyone who chooses to share their gifts with Augsburg and look forward to a time when we can celebrate this generosity in person.  

Warmly,
Paul S. Mueller, M.D. ’84
Chair of Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign

January 1, 1902 Dedication of New Old Main

On January 1, 1902, the Augsburg community rang in the new year with a multi-day celebration of the opening of what was then called “New Old Main”.

What follows is an excerpt edited for length and clarity from an earlier draft of “Hold Fast to What is Good,” the sesquicentennial history of Augsburg University, by Phil Adamo.

A hand drawn floor plan for New Old Main 1899

A hand drawn floor plan for New Old Main 1899

New Old Main

Omeyer & Thori architectural plan

1900

A QUARTER CENTURY after the Main building was erected, the seminary needed to expand. As the seminary grew, the building that would soon become “Old” Main was becoming inadequate to support classrooms for the increasing student body. In the summer of 1899, the Lutheran Free Church recommended that:

A new building [be built] containing class rooms, library, etc., at the cost of $30,000, the work to commence as soon as sufficient funds are collected. [1]

Groundbreaking and the laying of the foundation began in the winter of 1899, but the building was not completed until 1902. Several factors delayed construction on the building: a national economic slump in the 1890s, falling enrollments, students from small town farming families forced to stay home due to poor weather effecting crops. Tuition income fell. The cost of building materials rose.

Funding for New Main’s construction also became entangled in a scandal surrounding Trinity Lutheran’s pastor, Melchior Falk Gjertsen, who had close ties to Augsburg. Gjertsen had traveled to Norway with August Weenaas, on the expedition that brought Sven Oftedal back to the seminary. According to Chrislock, upon his return from a different preaching tour, in 1900, Gjertsen found himself accused of “having authored and posted a salacious letter to a married woman with whom he allegedly had established a romantic relationship during his stay in Norway.”[2] The letter made the pastor look like a philanderer and a cad. Gjertsen returned to Norway to clear his name, but when he was unable to do so, he slipped out of the country before facing further legal charges. Back in Minneapolis, the Trinity congregation questioned his suitability to serve as their pastor. Georg Sverdrup, then president of Augsburg and a member of Trinity, pushed for a full inquiry. The controversy split the Trinity congregation, and Gjertsen ended up resigning, only to found the Bethany Lutheran church, just blocks away on Franklin Avenue.

Trinity Lutheran’s pastor Melchior Falk Gjertsen

Historian Nina Draxten has worked to reclaim Pastor Gjertsen’s good name, demonstrating how the woman involved, Esther Biernakowsky Paulsen, had a questionable reputation. An employee at a major bank in Bergen claimed that Paulsen had also tried to ruin his reputation through false accusations. The fellow target of Paulsen’s scam offered to sign a deposition, but his employers pressured him to withdraw his statement to avoid bad publicity for the bank. Gjertsen did recover from the scandal, and was eventually re-elected to the Minneapolis school board, where he had served before all of this broke out.[3] But Gjertsen’s good relationship to Augsburg never returned. In terms of funding the new building, donors used the Gjertsen affair as a way to distance themselves from the project. According to Chrislock, Amasa C. Paul, president of the Minneapolis Commercial Club:

Pointed to “the trouble … in connection with … Gjertsen, which if we had foreseen, would have prevented us from taking up the [fund-raising] matter at all.”[4]

In spite of these difficulties, the capital campaign proceeded. During the summer of 1901, many of Augsburg’s preparatory faculty devoted their summer to fundraising for the building, which helped to move construction along. The completion of the building in 1902 instilled a sense of pride throughout the school’s faculty, staff, and students, and the new spacious structure helped to strengthen morale on campus.

As the plans from Saint Paul architects Didrik Omeyer and Martin Thori show, New Main contained several classrooms, a library, a museum, a gymnasium, and a chapel space. In a commemorative collection of reflections on the new building’s dedication, theology professor Hans Urseth offered this description of New Main:

The architecture is uniformly classic, leaving on the mind that impression of simplicity and harmony which characterizes especially purely Greek architecture … The ornamentation by which the wall surfaces are relieved, aside from the arches and belts in the brick-work proper, consist mainly in panels of terra cotta … The symbolic figure of a lighted torch in the terra cotta of the exterior is again found in the only ornamentation in the interior—the stucco-work of the chapel.[5]

Not to mention that it had indoor plumbing! In fact, following 1902’s completion of New Main, the school had modern plumbing installed in all of the buildings on campus. Prior to this, “old, unsightly” outhouses were used on the campus, which had “usurped valuable space on the seminary block for a generation.”[6]

The one common denominator of all buildings on Augsburg’s campus, for as long as they stand, is that they are constantly being re-purposed. This fate was no different for New Main. In 1947, it officially became Old Main when its predecessor was demolished. In the course of its life, the building’s chapel has become a painting studio; the gymnasium in the basement is now a sculpture studio. The museum is no more, and the library has been moved and improved at least twice.

In 1971, the Augsburgian praised Augsburg’s campus as being a “curious combination of old and new buildings.” New Old Main, it said:

Serves diverse purposes … a general classroom area … faculty offices hidden in its nooks and crannies … an up-to-date language lab in which students may be found during all hours of the day; and it even contains a chapel which can be used alternately as a classroom or a choir practice area. Old Main indeed has a unique personality.[7]

Yet New Old Main in the 1970s was itself under consideration for demolition. One major problem had to do with accessibility. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required that “every institution that wishes to keep receiving federal funds must be programmatically and structurally accessible to the handicapped population by June 2, 1980.”[8] Accessibility was a problem that affected the entire campus. In the 1980s, Augsburg implemented a campaign for improving accessibility across campus called “Making A Way.” This program, which began under Oscar Anderson’s presidency and extended into Charles Anderson’s, “included construction of elevators, ramps, tunnels, skyways, and powered doors to make classroom and administrative buildings accessible to all of the Augsburg community.”[9] Nowadays, the design of new buildings on campus includes accessibility considerations as a matter of course.

Yet New Old Main in the 1970s was itself under consideration for demolition. One major problem had to do with accessibility. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required that “every institution that wishes to keep receiving federal funds must be programmatically and structurally accessible to the handicapped population by June 2, 1980.”[8] Accessibility was a problem that affected the entire campus. In the 1980s, Augsburg implemented a campaign for improving accessibility across campus called “Making A Way.” This program, which began under Oscar Anderson’s presidency and extended into Charles Anderson’s, “included construction of elevators, ramps, tunnels, skyways, and powered doors to make classroom and administrative buildings accessible to all of the Augsburg community.”[9] Nowadays, the design of new buildings on campus includes accessibility considerations as a matter of course.

Old Main of the 1970s also required renovations to make it fire-safe: replacing wooden doors and installing a sprinkler system. Additional renovations would “rid the building of deficiencies such as sagging floors, energy-loss windows, and inefficient use of space.”[10] All tolled, these renovations would not be cheap, roughly $1.5 million. Within the school, a debate began on whether Augsburg should follow through with these renovations or construct a new building.

In November 1978, the Echo conducted a student poll on the question of razing or renovating Old Main. Student opinion was almost unanimous in favor of keeping the building instead of tearing it down, stating, for example, that it was the “only classy building in the school” and that “a college should be progressive, but it should not forget its beginnings.”[11] Chrislock offered the poll some historical perspective:

Augsburg’s first generation was still here when the building was built, and every subsequent generation has used it … Old Main does represent what Augsburg is architecturally. The Greek ideal was cultivated so much by Augsburg’s founders, and the very style of the building is a reminder of that.[12]

Because of these strong opinions and arguments, not to mention the resources necessary to construct a new building, Augsburg’s Board of Regents chose to keep Old Main and pursue the renovations it badly needed. According to Richard Nelson and Dave Wood:

Today, [Old Main] remains a monument to the faith of the college fathers, a linchpin to the past, stolid and permanent.[13]

In 1984, Old Main was put on the National Register of Historic Places.[14]

Heather Riddle
Vice President for Advancement



[1] “The Annual Meeting…,” Ekko, 1:7 (15 June 1899), 112.

[2] Chrislock, From Fjord to Freeway, 83.

[3] Nina Draxten, The Testing of M. Falk Gjertsen (Northfield, MN, 1988).

[4] Chrislock, From Fjord to Freeway, 83.

[5] H. A. Urseth, “The New Building,” Mindeblade om Indvielsen af Augsburg Seminariums Nye Bygning, 1ste—3die Januar 1902 (Minneapolis, 1902), 76-78.

[6] Chrislock, From Fjord to Freeway, 87.

[7] Augsburgian (1970-71), 132.

[8] Kathy Yakal, “Augsburg and the Handicapped,” Echo, 85:3 (22 September 1978), 4.

[9] Yakal, “Augsburg and the Handicapped,” 4.

[10] Chris Halvorson, “New Facility may replace Old Main” Echo, 85:8 (27 October 1978), 1.

[11] Chris Halvorson and Holly Grotten, “Echo Random Old Main Poll—To Raise or Renovate,” Echo, 85:11 (17 November 1978), 1.

[12] Halvorson and Grotten, “Echo Random Old Main Poll,” 1.

[13] Nelson and Wood, Anderson Chronicles, 126.

[14] “Augsburg Old Main,” Landmarks & Historic Districts, Minneapolismn.gov, http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/hpc/landmarks/hpc_landmarks_21st_ave_s_731_augsburg_old_main

Thank You

We are so grateful that you continue to champion Augsburg’s mission with your philanthropy. Your generosity makes a difference and doesn’t go unnoticed.

Money Magazine Ranking

Your support and the support of all of our donors makes Augsburg a distinct university. For example, a few weeks ago Augsburg was named a “most transformative college” by Money Magazine. We are the only school in Minnesota on their list of 50. You can see the full list here. Money Magazine shares that “It’s not surprising that elite schools report high graduation rates or alumni success. What’s impressive is when students beat the odds by doing better than would be expected from their academic and economic backgrounds. We call this a college’s value add. For this list, we ranked colleges based on our exclusive value-added scores for graduation rates, earnings, and student loan repayment, eliminating schools with below-average scores.”

Below you’ll see my mobile number and email address. Please feel free to text, call, or email me if I can be helpful to you in any way.

Sincerely,

Heather Riddle

Vice President for Advancement, Augsburg University

mobile: 651-283-7949

riddle@augsburg.edu

Investing Our Endowment for Great Returns

As Campaign Chair for Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with alumni, parents, and friends of the University to discuss the ways in which we can carry Augsburg’s mission into the future. On a recent trip to Florida, I met with regent emeritus Dan Anderson ‘65, who shared about his time on the Board of Regents with me.

While Dan was serving on the Board, he chaired a committee that looked into how we invest our Augsburg endowment. Compared to many private colleges, our endowment is relatively small. Dan and the committee had four goals:

  1. Understand the history of the endowment at Augsburg;
  2. Begin preliminary determinations about the role endowment should play in achieving our mission and strategies;
  3. Determine how endowment growth strategies should be incorporated into and aligned with other fundraising priorities; and
  4. Recommend an endowment growth goal and strategies that will bring Augsburg more in line with peer institutions.

Dan also shared with me the current strategy for investing Augsburg’s endowment in Commonfund, a nonprofit organization started by the Ford Foundation to help other nonprofits manage their endowment and pension funds.

Dan said, “Based on the recommendation of the Investment Committee, the Augsburg Board hired Commonfund in 2008 to provide cost effective advice relating to developing an Investment Policy Statement, to help select high profile asset managers over a wide range of asset classes to implement the asset allocation strategy called for, and to monitor the performance of these managers and provide quarterly reporting on their results.”

Through our work with Commonfund, I believe Augsburg has found a much savvier way to invest that can start to compete with schools who have the luxury of a much larger endowment.

Here’s a quick snapshot of our investments over the last few years:


In her work as chair of the Audit Committee and vice chair of the Finance Committee of the Board of Regents, Karen (Miller) Durant ‘81 has provided expert advice on Augsburg’s current investments for the endowment. Karen has been an Augsburg Regent since 2011 and has recently retired from a distinguished career in business, most recently as Vice President and Controller of Tennant Company.

“After seeing the higher level of philanthropy related to the new Center for Science, Business & Religion building, I knew focusing on increasing our endowment was the right next step,” Karen said. “Investing in our endowment, especially unrestricted cash giving, benefits Augsburg’s overall financial position. We are seeing momentum from this new Great Returns campaign that will support Augsburg’s mission and I’m completely comfortable and confident that the University will use the money in the most effective way for years to come.”

I appreciate Dan’s and Karen’s leadership and for taking the time to share this information with me. I have great confidence in the way our endowment is managed.

To learn more about how our endowment was initially established, I turned to Kristin Anderson, Augsburg’s archivist and professor of art history, who was helpful in providing a historical perspective. As with much of Augsburg’s history, she says this is a complicated issue. After a number of years of financial difficulties, Sven Oftedal started a fundraising campaign in 1877-78. It was successful, but only temporarily, and so there was an additional project to raise more money for an endowment fund. This project was approved by the Conference (the church body affiliated with Augsburg, and for which Augsburg was the seminary) in 1880. By 1882, when the campaign ended, the committee had cash and pledges of more than $50,000. (Read Carl Chrislock’s history of Augsburg, From Fjord to Freeway, for more information.) The endowment did not belong to Augsburg, but to the Conference, and so it was tangled up in the synodical mergers and lawsuits of the 1890s.

Kristin says that $50,000 was released by Augsburg and they had to restart the endowment later. She cites Chrislock again on the topic: “The 1898 settlement balanced one major concession to the Augsburg party with two less important ones to the United Church. The latter yielded title to all Augsburg Seminary real estate, both land and buildings, thereby placing the campus under the uncontested ownership of Oftedal’s corporation. In return, the Augsburg board surrendered claim to the endowment fund contributed by the Conference at the time of the union, an asset estimated to be worth approximately $49,000, that Augsburg had controlled and utilized since 1890.”

This is the same fund that Oftedal created a decade earlier, the fundraising for which was largely accomplished by Oftedal and others at Augsburg. It was, after all, created to provide ongoing support for Augsburg. Eventually, the endowment was restarted as the endowment fund we see today.

I hope you also found this information helpful in understanding Augsburg’s tireless mission to invest in our students and create a place for education that is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies that will last for generations to come. Thank you for your continued attention to our drive to build Augsburg’s endowment in Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign.

These are exciting times for Augsburg! Please keep the University and its students, faculty, and staff in your thoughts and prayers. If you would like to have a gift conversation or have any questions about the campaign, please reach out to me (muellerp@augsburg.edu) or Vice President for Advancement Heather Riddle (riddle@augsburg.edu).

Warmly,

Paul S. Mueller, M.D. ’84

Chair of Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign

Sesquicentennial Gala Photos

Once again, thank you to all who helped kick off Augsburg’s 150th anniversary with our Sesquicentennial Gala! We have so many fun and beautiful photos to share from that evening. Feel free to download and share your favorites on social media.

Sesquicentennial Gala Album 1

 Sesquicentennial Gala Album 2

If you’re interested in helping us plan our next big event for Augsburg, please join our volunteer planning group! Our next meeting will be Monday, November 11, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, the Depot.

RSVP to codek@augsburg.edu.

Go Auggies!

Katie (Koch) Code ’01, Director of Alumni & Constituent Relations

Augsburg Sesquicentennial Gala Videos

Thank you to everyone who helped us kick-off Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial at the Gala on Friday, September 27! The evening was filled with uniquely-Augsburg moments and our guests made a lasting impact as we raised $1.4 million in support of our mission.

Along with the guest speakers and beautiful performances by the Bob Stacke All-Star Band, The Augsburg Choir and The Sesquicentennial Singers, three videos were shown during the evening that tell the Augsburg story from our origins, to who we are today, to the impact we make for students. Please feel free to watch and share them with friends and family!

Origins

What are Augsburg’s origins? Our history has so many layers to it. As we continue to grow in our 150th year, we want to look back and honor everything that has brought us to this point.

We Are Auggies

“We Are Auggies,” written and performed by Donte Collins ’18, is a true embodiment of what it means to be an Auggie.

Meet Chung Lip ’18, Lyle Nyberg ’18, and Blair Stewig ’18, future leaders in public health and the sciences. Their stories were shared at our Sesquicentennial Gala right before we went on to raise $1.4 million during our giving opportunity portion of the evening. Thank you to everyone who helped to invest in our students and in Augsburg!

New Campaign Milestone

As we begin the new school year I’m happy to share that we’ve reached a new milestone for Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign. Thanks to Campaign Chair Dr. Paul Mueller ’84, Campaign Vice-Chair for Planned Giving Pam Moksnes ’79, Chair of the Board of Regents Matt Entenza and many other University leaders we’ve secured over $46 million in gifts and pledges. This is an incredible achievement at this early stage of the campaign.

What have we learned in the early stages of this campaign?

1) People are excited about Augsburg. The University is stronger than it has ever been, we are serving a really wide range of students including many who haven’t traditionally felt welcome or supported in higher education, and the quality of experience we offer our students is remarkable.

2) Our donors see the potential to do even more good work in the world through Augsburg. Supporting faculty and funding scholarships means better future teachers, business professionals, scientists, writers, filmmakers, music makers, social workers, nurses, church leaders, civic leaders, and citizens working in many other areas.

3) Augsburg campaign donors believe in the future of the University. As we kick off our Sesquicentennial Celebration we can see a long history of education rooted in our values. Augsburg inspires confidence as a place that will carry our mission far into the future.

Thank you for all you have done to help get us here! I look forward to the coming year and even more milestones.

Sincerely,

Heather Riddle
Vice President for Advancement

Campaign Milestone: $40 Million Raised

$40,000,000 thermometerThere is much to be grateful for and I want to share some good news with you today! Recently, Augsburg reached the significant milestone of $40 million in gifts and pledges toward Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign. Generous commitments from alumni, parents, and friends have already created 51 new endowed scholarships and three endowed professorships.

The story behind each gift is inspiring to me. Recently, I read about Tom Peterson ’69 who honors his father by contributing regularly to the Clifford A. Peterson Scholarship Endowment Fund so that students in the business program can receive financial aid to significantly offset their educational costs. Donors like Tom are the cornerstone of this campaign.

Peterson’s  insight on the importance of growing Augsburg’s endowment was recently featured as a gift announcement story:

“A small scholarship throws off enough to buy books. I would like to get to where I can make a material dent in someone’s tuition,” Tom Peterson says. Currently, a $1,000,000 endowment provides enough to cover one student’s full scholarship (tuition plus room and board) each year.

I look forward to working with the growing number of campaign insiders like Tom Peterson who choose to invest in the future of Augsburg.

The Board of Regents and President Paul Pribbenow expect to focus on fundraising for endowment through Augsburg’s sesquicentennial year (2019-20). Regular updates on campaign progress, including gift announcements, will be available on the Great Returns blog.

Warmly,

Paul S. Mueller, M.D. ’84
Chair of Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign

Augsburg Announces Goal for 150 New Scholarships

When a water droplet hits the surface of a pond, it causes a ripple effect that spreads across the pond’s surface. That’s how my dear wife and Augsburg Regent Nancy (Mackey ’85) Mueller sees the effect a gift to the Augsburg endowment can have on the University’s future. 

On Saturday, Nov. 17, Augsburg hosted a brunch to thank scholarship donors who have given generously to Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign and to announce the ambitious goal of securing 150 new scholarships in honor of the 150th anniversary of the University’s founding.

As of mid-November, 65 new scholarships have been established toward this goal. During the brunch, donors were recognized with a special gift—a hand-blown glass water droplet. Each glass water droplet is one of a kind and has been signed and numbered by the artist. These small works of art symbolize the impact each benefactor has and will have on the lives of Augsburg students today and in the future.

As President Pribbenow said at Saturday’s brunch, “Your generosity is life-giving and sustaining. Your support ripples out to touch the lives of students for generations to come. It also ripples out to inspire other donors.”

These scholarships play a key role in the Great Returns campaign as they increase our endowment and make Augsburg more accessible to students. We are pleased to report the campaign reached $36 million in October and continues to grow through the philanthropy of the amazing Augsburg community.

Scholarship Donor Brunch

A special thank you to the following people who have given a scholarship so far:

Allen ’65 and Joyce Anderson
Shelby (Gimse) Andress ’56
Anonymous (2)
D. Scott and Meg Bassinson
Lola (Lidstrom) Berg ’50
Barbara and Zane Birky
Eric Browning-Larsen ’75
Barry ’89 MAL and Cynthia Carlson
Jason and Camilla Chan
Judith A. Christensen
Jerelyn (Hovland) ’63 and Clyde Cobb
Deborah (Fredrickson) ’76 and Bill Crowley
George ’72 and Janet Dahlman
Lars ’97 and Mocha (Holmgren) ’97 Dyrud
David and Edith Egertson
John ’82 and Joan Evans
Barbara and Edwin Gage
Linda Giacomo
Frank ’96 and Rebecca Grazzini
Sharon (Hendrickson) ’67 and Karl Gronberg
Corinne (Tandberg) and John Haglund
Karen (Jacobson) ’67 and David ’67 Haugen
John ’70 and Lynn (Benson) ’69 Hjelmeland
Kenneth ’74 and Linda (Bailey) ’74 Holmen
Bradley ’63 and Linda Holt
Marlene (Chan) ’74 and Shi-wah Hui
Diane and Paul Jacobson
Katherine ’81, ’16 MAE and James Johnson
Wayne ’71 and Carol (Pederson) ’72 Jorgenson
Dr. Rachel (Hendrickson) ’71 and Dr. Bruce Julian
Karen Kaivola and Bonnie Tensen
Karina Karlén ’83
Bruce and Maren Kleven
David and Barbara Kleven
Dean ’77 and Susan Kopperud
Kathryn Lange ’72 and Dennis Sonifer
Diane and Philip Larson
Jean Lingen
Frank ’65 and Beatrice Livingston
Carol (Torstenson) ’65 and Allan McCausland
Donna Demler McLean
Patricia McNevin ’90
Peter Mitchelson and Judith Henderson
Lori Moline ’82 and Steven Olson
Marlys (Backlund) Morland ’54
Sharon (Lindell) Mortrud ’64
Patricia (Larson) Moylan ’57
Paul ’84 and Nancy (Mackey) ’85 Mueller
James ’67 and Shirley Norman
Kristine (Peterson) Pearson ’78
Miriam (Cox) ’68 and Ronald Peterson
Thomas Peterson ’69
Philip Jr. and Margaret Rowberg
John ’77 and Jane Sandness
Douglas and Grace Schroeder Scott
Earl ’68 and Lisbeth (Jorgensen) ’70 Sethre
Grace (Kemmer) Sulerud ’58
Lisa Svac Hawks ’85
Nicolas Thomley ’06 MBA
Harold and Maureen Thompson
Sharon L. Upton ’79
Deborah (Lease) ’78 and Douglas Wagman
Katharine Watson
David Wattman ’77 and James Karason ’78
John Welckle ’57
Craig Wisness ’73
Marjorie (Chan) Wong ’79
John ’74 and Marvel Yager
Marlys Yu

Campaign Milestone: $35 Million Raised

thermometer showing $35 million reached As Augsburg enters its 150th academic year, Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign led by Regent Emeritus

Paul Mueller ‘84, Regent Pam Moksnes ‘79, and others has reached an important, early milestone. Alumni, parents, and friends have committed more than $35 million including 62 new scholarships and three named professorships.

The campaign to build Augsburg’s endowment follows on the heels of a $50 million capital campaign for the 2018 opening of the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion. While capital campaigns are often focused on current gifts to fund construction, endowment campaigns create opportunities for donors to give now and to plan for gifts in the future through beneficiary designations, will inclusions, and other types of plans. In Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign donors are also able to direct their gifts to support specific programs and academic departments.

The Board of Regents and President Paul Pribbenow expect to focus on fundraising for endowment through Augsburg’s sesquicentennial year (2019-20) and possible beyond. Regular updates on campaign progress, including gift announcements, will be available on the Great Returns blog.