USM Awarded Kresge Challenge Grant

Grant Brings Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign Closer to Goal

The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan, considered by many to be the nation's preeminent foundation for "bricks and mortar" projects, awarded USM a $750,000 Challenge Grant to help fund University Commons, the centerpiece of the University's capital campaign.

The Kresge Foundation's grant is contingent on USM raising $3.1 million by June 30, 2007. The $3.1 million balance is the amount required to reach the goal of $20 million in private donations. The campaign has a total goal of $25 million, including $5 million in public funding.

The Kresge Foundation's Capital Challenge Grant Program is designed to enable non-profit organizations not only to meet immediate capital needs, but also to build longterm relationships with donors and volunteer leaders beyond a building project's completion.

Competition for these grants is intense. In one recent year, for example, The Kresge Foundation reviewed 636 proposals and awarded just 175 grants.

"A capital campaign offers a strategic opportunity for an organization to connect with its stakeholders and reach out to new donors, volunteers, participants, and the general community," wrote John E. Marshall III, president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation in a letter announcing the grant. He cited USM's "compelling strategy" to use the Kresge Challenge Grant as a means to build additional community support.

USM announced its $25 millioncapital campaign in April of 2005. Carol Wishcamper of Freeport and Richard McGoldrick of Cape Elizabeth are co-chairs of the largest campaign in USM's history.

University Commons—the campaign's centerpiece— will be located between the Abromson Community Education Center and the Glickman Family Library. The Commons will be the building site for the Muskie School of Public Service and the national headquarters of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute; an expanded Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education; a promenade along Bedford Street; and a reconfiguration of the Glickman Library's first floor so that the main entrance faces campus. Site work will begin in late 2006.