Southern Oregon University has publicly launched a $100 million fundraising campaign while working to reduce its annual spending by $20 million.
The Thrive campaign, the largest in the university’s history, began privately in 2021. SOU says it has received $71.4 million in gifts and commitments toward the goal, which it aims to reach over the next three years.
That total includes pledges and planned estate gifts, not just money available to spend now.
President Rick Bailey said most donations are designated for specific purposes rather than available to cover the university’s ongoing budget shortfall.
“We're going to have to make sure that we are conscious about every dollar that we spend,” he said. “At the same time, we're ambitiously looking at how philanthropy can supercharge things.”
The campaign’s priorities include regional partnerships, student mentoring and opportunities for field studies and other hands-on learning. Its four pillars are community, resiliency, innovation and discovery.
Some campaign funds are already supporting scholarships, employees and programs, Bailey said. Other commitments will take longer to become available.
"That is made up of gifts that we've already received, but it's also made up of pledges, bequests, so people putting us in their estate plans," he said. "It's a pretty diverse portfolio of funding opportunities. All of them are beneficial, but they all sit on different time horizons."
The fundraising effort comes as SOU implements its Vitality Plan, part of an effort to achieve $20 million in annual savings by June 2027. The university says the plan would connect learning across academic disciplines, streamline paths to graduation and emphasize hands-on experience. Campaign donations would support that shift by supplementing state funding and supporting academic programs and student opportunities.
Bailey described the fundraising campaign and budget reductions as separate but complementary efforts.
"We have not used philanthropic dollars in one-time funding to just solve a systemic challenge because we know that that's a fool's errand," he said.
SOU has also secured a $15 million emergency funding package from the state to help it remain financially stable while carrying out the cuts.
Bailey said the campaign will support the university as it changes.
“The comprehensive fundraising campaign is really about planting the seeds that will help our new version of SOU be its best self,” he said. “In that sense, I think it kind of lays on top of the Vitality Plan and really will help create an environment that is far richer because of the work that we're already doing.”
JPR is licensed to Southern Oregon University, but our newsroom operates independently. Guided by our journalistic standards and ethics, we cover the university like any other organization in the region. No university official reviewed or edited this story before it was published.
