Pacific Celebrates Unrestricted Success with Boxer Excellence Week

Last week, Pacific University wrapped up its inaugural Boxer Excellence Week fundraising initiative, the first fundraising effort since Pacific launched the public phase of Lead On: The Campaign for Tomorrow at Pacific.

Born out of Boxer Giving Day, a successful one-day fundraising blitz held in recent years, Boxer Excellence Week focused on a different excellence fund each day for eight days total and capitalized on the philanthropic environment of the holidays by launching on #GivingTuesday.

Pacific’s first Boxer Excellence Week was a great success, raising $265,458 in gifts and pledges from 720 generous donors. The Pacific Excellence Fund garnered $28,127, while $91,277 went to program- and school-specific excellence funds. An additional $146,054 in restricted funds was gifted to the university. 

Of the 720 donors who gave during Boxer Excellence Week, 201 donors were alumni, 193 donors were Pacific employees, 164 donors were Pacific students and friends, and 151 donors were Boxer parents. A generous challenge gift from Pacific President Lesley Hallick helped to bring 46 new donors into the Boxer community.

Excellence funds are the pools of unrestricted gifts that provide resources to areas of greatest need for the university at any given time, allowing Pacific the flexibility to meet emerging needs and provide a nurturing and engaging environment for current and future generations of Boxers. Excellence funds support student success through financial aid and program support. They can also provide updated technology and learning environments. And they help Pacific recruit and retain talented faculty and staff.

“Because of their unrestricted nature,” said Karine Kadyan, director of Annual Giving, “gifts to Pacific’s Excellence Funds provide the broadest range of support to Pacific University and are critical to the ongoing success of the university.”

Pacific University is home to nearly 4,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students in the arts and sciences, business, education, health professions and optometry on four campuses in Oregon. In November 2017, the university launched the public phase of Lead On: The Campaign for Tomorrow at Pacific University, an $80 million fundraising effort to support endowments, innovations, and learning environments and resources.