The Cortland College Foundation raises $30.5 million to support students

The Campaign for Cortland- All in Building on Success the Cortland College Foundation had raised $30.5 million from 13,426 donors. In 2018, SUNY Cortland started to raise over $25 million for over five years to help support students and key universities’ priorities.

These funds will support five critical goals: strengthening student access and success; enriching Cortland’s unique educational experience; supporting academic programs and faculty; nurturing SUNY’s healthiest, most athletic campus; and building a lifetime network.

Because of SUNY Cortland’s donors and supporters, they surpassed the fundraiser target by 20%. And because of this campaign, thousands of students will receive scholarships that will help lessen the financial burden on families and reduce student debt. At the height of the pandemic, there were families and students financially struggling to meet ends to go earn an education and have enough to feed themselves. SUNY Cortland created a student emergency fund to help students pay for their expenses, Cortland’s supporters rose to action and donated more than $417,000 to students who are in need and had to put a pause on their education.

The campaign’s five priorities and the money raised for each are: 

• Strengthening student access and success $13,703,322 
• Enriching our unique educational experience $5,658,072 
• Supporting academic programs and faculty $1,996,266 
• Nurturing SUNY’s healthiest, most athletic campus $3,570,960 
• Building a lifetime network $1,099,862

The campaign also demonstrated that every gift matters, regardless of size. More than 5,000 supporters made gifts of less than $1,000, helping to drive the Cortland Fund to record-breaking heights. In each of the last three years, SUNY Cortland’s annual fundraised more than $1 million in unrestricted gifts. Between that and unrestricted endowment gifts, nearly $4.5 million in unrestricted funds were raised over the course of the campaign.

If you’re interested in supporting the campaign, whether you’re an alum, student, parent, professor, employee, or friend, there are several ways you can make a charitable, tax-free contribution to SUNY Cortland. Your gift is an investment in talented students reaching their potential — and in gifted faculty to deliver a quality education — within a nurturing environment that promotes innovation and experiential learning.