Constructing A Culture Of Giving

Fulton provides ASU big incentives with challenge grants

Seven ASU deans were called to a hastily arranged meeting at 7 a.m., on February 23. When they arrived in the sixth floor conference room of the ASU Foundation Building, none of them had an inkling of what the meeting was about.

They got a clue when Ira A. Fulton, ASU alumnus and the largest donor in ASU's history, walked into the room. Before the gathering of deans and Foundation staff, Fulton announced the establishment of challenge grants totaling $300,000 for seven ASU schools, for the colleges' Dean's Investment Funds.

Fulton told the deans, "The dollar amounts of the matching grants aren't high. I wanted to give you targets you could meet. Meet them, and I'll give you more."

If the colleges are able to raise these amounts, Fulton will match College of Liberal Arts and Sciences up to $100,000; the Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts and College of Law, up to $50,000; and the Barrett Honors College, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, College of Education, and the College of Nursing, up to $25,000.

Less than a week after delivering the fund-raising challenge to ASU deans, Fulton gave ASU a million-dollar incentive to raise funds for university athletics. On Feb. 28, he announced another Fulton Challenge — a pledge to the Sun Angel Foundation to match up to $1 million in donations for the next year. The funds will directly support new ASU women's athletic scholarships, as well as cover costs for an NCAA-mandated summer school program for first-year athletes, tuition and fee increases, and computer lab upgrades.

To date, every football, baseball, tennis, women's golf, wresting, gymnastics and softball player has made a contribution to the challenge — a first in Sun Devil history. More than 75 percent of the Sun Angel Foundation Board of Directors has committed to the challenge.

And at least one college has already met the challenge Fulton set before it. On May 12, Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing, announced that the college had reached the goal of $25,000. The college had a participation rate of 76 percent from the faculty and staff. Fulton presented her with a check for $25,000, and challenged the dean to raise another $25,000, which he will match.

"We are grateful for the money that you pledged," Ira Jackson, president of the ASU Foundation, told Fulton. "But, more important, your challenge will help create a culture of giving, which we badly need. Over time, this program may create a culture of giving that would be the envy of any venture capitalist in the world."

Fulton, who attended ASU on a football scholarship, says his motive with the challenge is to get more people involved in supporting the university. "If someone has been giving on a regular basis, that's great," he says. "What I want is to get to the ones who haven't given for a couple of years, and I want to get them into the habit — and the fun — of giving and being part of this great organization."

These two challenges come on the heels of the first challenge program Fulton offered ASU to the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, which matches gifts from alumni, faculty and staff of the school (see ASU Magazine, Winter 2005).

About his generosity, Fulton says, "I want to help make ASU truly a new American university. I just want everyone to step up and help me succeed here and accomplish the task at hand."

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Photo: Ben Arnold

Ira Fulton, left, congratulates Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing, on meeting the fundraising challenge he set before the nursing program.

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