Perdue-Kresge Challenge nears goal

SALISBURY, MD --With 90 percent of its goal raised, the Salisbury University Foundation is already benefiting from a campaign to raise endowment support for SU outreach programs. The SU Foundation is a partner in the Perdue-Kresge Challenge for the Community, an endowment campaign sponsored by the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.

The goal assigned to the SU Foundation is $800,000 that will be matched dollar-for-dollar to create a $1.6 million endowment for University outreach programs.

Salisbury University assembled the SU Foundation Endowment Partnership as the ideal response to the Perdue-Kresge Challenge for the Community: the partner organizations are all firmly tied to Salisbury University’s educational mission but each is primarily oriented to SU’s goal of civic engagement. Partners were selected because each serves the Lower Shore community, and the region, in a unique way. Each Partner is finding the Challenge has energized volunteers.

“The exciting thing is that the Perdue-Kresge Challenge has allowed us to bring together five groups within the University who will not only achieve their goals, but be better because of the process and more financially stable because of the funds raised,” said Henry Hanna, chair of the Salisbury University Foundation and SU’s Perdue-Kresge Challenge.

Those five partner organizations that make up the SU Foundation Endowment Partnership are: The Center for Conflict Resolution, the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, the Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art and the Seidel Challenge. Each organization has individual fund-raising goals to reflect the length of its fund-raising program.

Together, the Partnership has raised $725,000 in pledges toward the $800,000 goal.

The Ward Museum, acquired by Salisbury University last year, has already reached its $350,000 Perdue-Kresge goal, although it continues to raise funds for other grants.

SSO funds will be further enhanced by the $100,000 gift given by benefactor Peter Jackson. This means each dollar raised by the Symphony will become $2 with Perdue-Kresge and then $4 with the Peter Jackson Challenge Gift.

The Seidel Scholarship Challenge for future teachers, launched in response to a generous gift from the late Sam Seidel and his wife, Marilyn, is the fifth component to the partnership. This effort is particularly important as SU responds to the regional and nationwide teacher shortage by increasing scholarships for students majoring in education.

Two of the youngest fund-raising programs in the partnership belong to the Nabb Research Center and the Center for Conflict Resolution. The Perdue-Kresge Challenge has enabled them to broaden their donor base with supporters who have a better understanding of fund-raising.