UM Foundation

We did it!

UM’s campaign, Invest in Discovery—Connecting People, Programs, and Place, is history—and historic. This record-breaking campaign has helped shape UM’s future as a university for the twenty-first century.

As of this writing, the campaign is days from its December 31 conclusion, but it is clear the effort will exceed expectations. The final total will be celebrated throughout the spring, but already your gifts are making a tremendous impact on UM’s students and programs.

Nearly 600 undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships have been established or enhanced to recruit and reward scholars and ease the financial burden of a UM education.

The John J. Craighead Chair in Wildlife Biology and Poe Family Professorship in Entrepreneurship are in place, and more than twenty other funds have received support to benefit UM’s top-notch faculty.

Collaborative research and science education are under way in the pharmacy and biomedical science addition to the Skaggs Building.

Eleven other building projects received gift funds to move construction or renovation forward and create additional educational opportunities for students.

More than 400 funds and 200 endowments are supporting academic programs all across the campus.

More than 26,000 donors have partnered with the UM Foundation, campus leaders, students, faculty, staff, and the state of Montana through this campaign. That’s enough to populate the city of Helena or fill our own Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Thank you.

And the winners are...

In the fall 2007 Montanan, Invest in Discovery national chair Debby McWhinney issued a challenge. Give to the campaign, she said, and she’d match five randomly drawn gifts dollar-for-dollar.

Out of the challenge gift envelopes received, those selected to have their gifts doubled were Thomas H. Agamenoni ’60, Great Falls; Joe Fahn ’63, Harlowton; Pat Lamphere Jordan, a former UM professor of education now living in Guthrie, Oklahoma; Evelyn G. Rimel ’32, Missoula; and Edward T. ’48 and Phyllis T. Ruppel, Twin Bridges.

Hats Off To Our Volunteers

Volunteers have been at the heart of this campaign, and their success is UM’s success. Bravo for a job well done! Thank you to the UM Foundation Board of Trustees, the campus community, staff of the Foundation, and these campaign leaders:

National Campaign Chair
Deborah Doyle McWhinney ’77
Campaign Cabinet
Priscilla Pickard Gilkey ’62
Charles R. Oliver
Mickey Cummings Sogard ’68, ’81

Campaign Steering Committee
Scott M. Brown ’67
John G. Connors ’84
Shaun Corette ’58
Earl E. Morgenroth ’61
John L. Olson ’62
William G. Papesh ’65
Terry W. Payne ’63
Susan Anderson Talbot ’80
A. Warren Wilcox ’65

Honorary Campaign Chairs
Ian B. Davidson ’53
Nancy Preston Davidson ’59
George M. Dennison ’62, ’63
Jane I. Dennison
Dennis R. Washington
Phyllis J. Peterson Washington ’64

Regional Chairs
John Connors ’84, Seattle
Linda Phillips Knoblock ’65, Helena
Wayne Linnell ’59, Great Falls
James Mariska ’74, Billings
Deborah Doyle McWhinney ’77,
San Francisco Bay Area
Ivan O’Neil ’50, Kalispell
Pat Risken ’81, Spokane
Sue Anderson Talbot ’80, Missoula