Show The WorldEquip, Energize, Elevate

The Campaign

In May 2023, Gustavus announced the successful completion of the largest fundraising campaign in the College’s history. Thanks to the generosity of alumni, parents, and friends, Show the World surpassed its goal of $225 million in new gifts and pledges to the College.

Show the World was planned as a comprehensive campaign to boost financial support for a range of needs and initiatives. The campaign was linked to the Gustavus Acts Strategic Plan, the ten-year blueprint for steering the College in the 21st century. Your response to the Show the World summons has given Gustavus a solid financial foundation to deliver a distinctive liberal arts education, serve a diverse student community, and implement sustainable practices on campus.

Over the 8-year campaign, the Gustavus community made more than 90,000 gifts to the College.


Show the World raised more than $228 million for the mission-centered work of Gustavus.

Student looking into the camera lens over open text books and smiling.

GoalEquip

Our vision calls us to equip students to lead purposeful lives so they may act on the great challenges of our time.

In striving toward this goal, we aimed to meet the documented financial need for all admitted students. With gifts for endowed and current scholarships, the College’s alumni and friends have committed themselves to ensuring that a Gustavus education is inclusive and affordable.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for technological resources. Your philanthropy allowed us to equip campus with important upgrades in software, hardware, and IT infrastructure.

The pandemic also underscored the importance of student support for physical and mental health, career development, and mentorship. Major gifts in these areas ensure that Gustavus provides unparalleled support for its students.

Thanks to you, Gustavus has the resources it needs to equip students for fulfilling lives of leadership and service.

Lund Center aerial render

GoalEnergize

Gustavus has been transformed with new facilities, a new curriculum, and new opportunities for students.

The campaign brought the gifts needed to renovate and expand Nobel Hall of Science. With more than $50 million in gifts from donors, the project doubled the size of the existing building, adding labs, classrooms, and spaces for study and gather. At the connecting point of Nobel and Anderson Theatre, a new lab theater and atrium provide a unique link between the sciences and arts.

In spring 2022, Gustavus opened the new expansion of Lund Center. Right away, the new wellness and exercise facilities became one of the most popular and well-used spaces on campus.

A new general education curriculum launched in 2019, part of the ongoing development of how Gustavus provides a distinctive liberal arts experience. Endowed faculty positions bring dedicated teachers and researchers to campus and keep them here.

Our campus is energized by state-of-the facilities and top-level resources.

Gustavus faculty member a student talking on a mountain in Ecuador.

GoalElevate

Your gifts ELEVATED the liberal arts with dedicated teaching and advanced research.

Gustavus is an exceptional college with exceptional students and an unmatched community. We are intelligent, compassionate, diverse, and ready to act on the great challenges of our time.

Thanks to your generosity, our students have had life-changing experiences. New research fellowships enable students to work alongside professors, conducting the kind of advanced research that is usually limited to graduate students. Students have even co-written scholarly publications with their professors.

Students have also had transformative international experiences. A Gustavus liberal arts education is truly global. Your gifts for overseas study and international student support ensure that the College is open to the world.

Gustavus equips.

Gusties act.

And the world is a better place because of it.

Our Priorities | Your Commitment

  • Grow endowed fundsENDOWMENT GROWTH OF OVER $130 MILLION SINCE 2016
  • Increase scholarshipsMORE THAN 200 NEW SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS CREATED
  • Invest in strategic capital projectsOVER $60 MILLION FOR NEW & UPDATED FACILITIES
  • Enhance signature eventsFUNDING FOR SUMMER CAMPS, NOBEL CONFERENCE, & CHRISTMAS IN CHRIST CHAPEL

Where Gifts Went

People gave to the Show the World campaign in a variety of ways: check, credit card, appreciated stock, qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, even crypto currency. Over 75% of the gifts were in cash or other immediate assets. The remaining 25% were pledged in bequests, estate plans, or life insurance designations.

During the campaign, the Gustavus endowment saw extraordinary growth. This increase was due to gifts to the endowment, including over 200 new endowment funds, as well as savvy decisions by the College’s Investment Committee. From 2018 to 2022, the endowment grew by 52.4%, far more than any other peer institution.

All of Us for All of GustavUs

The Gustavus community is passionate, engaged, caring, and inclusive. Whatever field they choose, Gusties lead lives of leadership and service in society and give back to their communities. Learn more about how Gusties are living out the core values of excellence, community, justice, service, and faith.

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