Why UW-Eau Claire needs your support

Ways to give

Planned giving
to UW-Eau Claire

Foundation board
of directors

Contact us

Give now

2006 campaign highlights

December 2006

The UW-Eau Claire Foundation experienced one of its best fundraising years of the Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence campaign during the 2005-06 fiscal year, raising $3,882,500. (More than $500,000 of that total was in unrestricted gifts, a first for the campaign.) In addition, the Foundation has received more than $2 million in gifts and pledges during the first six months of fiscal year 2006-07.

High points of the Foundation's successful fundraising efforts in 2005-06 and the first half of 2007 have included several estate gifts and commitments:

• Ethel Seitz

  A $450,000 gift from the estate of Ethel Seitz, a professor emerita of geography, endowing the Kelin and Ethel Seitz Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarships and the Kerlin and Ethel Seitz Scholarship for geography majors. (Read more.)
• A commitment of $500,000 by alumna Ann Thornburg through her annual gifts and estate to create the Thomas and Mavis Gunderson Blugold Promise Scholarship. (Read more.)
• A $500,000 bequest commitment by UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Emerita Vicki Lord

  Scott Seawell

  Larson to permanently endow the James Larson and Vicki Lord Larson Scholarship Fund and add to the Communication Disorder Scholarship in honor of her mother, Stella Lord. (Read more.)
• A $200,000 gift from the estate of alumnus Scott Seawell, establishing an endowed scholarship in computer science. (Read more.)

Some of the other major gifts illustrating the breadth and depth of support the Foundation provides are:

• David and Marilyn Karlgaard

  $500,000 from alumni and national campaign chairpersons David and Marilyn Karlgaard, to supplement their 2002 pledge of $4.5 million in support of the UW-Eau Claire computer science department. (Read more.)
• More than $65,000 from the friends and family of Michael A. Reinke, a 1971 alumnus killed in 2004. Their collective gifts endowed a scholarship in economics. (Read more.)
• More than $35,000 from Chippewa Valley Orthopedic and Dr. John and Helen Drawbert for the athletic training program, in memory of Jeff Oliphant and for the Carson Park turf project.
• Nearly $80,000 from the Rath Foundation for the Rath Foundation Scholarships, bringing the foundation's gift total to nearly $1 million.
• $32,000 from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans as part of a challenge grant for Summer Service Fellowships, a community service outreach in Washington, D.C.

• Gordon Bartelt

  A $74,000 stock gift from alumna Margaret Bartelt in memory of her husband and UW-Eau Claire alum, Gordon. The endowment supports infrastructure and faculty development in the biology department. (Read more.)
• $50,000 from the A.H. Zeppa Family Foundation to support single-parent scholarships and internships for students working in the campus autism program. (Read more.)
• $33,000 from Dr. Aina Galejs, one of UW-Eau Claire's newest Honorary Blugolds, to continue to fund scholarships for students from Latvia to study at UW-Eau Claire.
• $59,000 from Betsy Kell, a 1970 UW-Eau Claire alumna, to add $50,000 to the John Kell Memorial Fund and underwrite the construction of a brick bench as a companion piece to the newly reconstructed original entrance to campus.

• Cassandra Ball Egdahl

  $25,000 in stock from Richard Egdahl as his first payment toward a $100,000 pledge to further endow the Cassandra Ball Egdahl Scholarship, established in memory of his mother. (Read more.)
• $25,000 from Northwestern Bank to establish the Northwestern Bank Marching Band Scholarship. (Read more.)
• A $125,000 challenge grant from the Casper Foundation recognizing the excellence of UW-Eau Claire's nursing program and celebrating the program's 40th anniversary. (Read more.)