SAVANNAH — For the second year in a row, Georgia Southern University set a record for private fundraising, according to figures from the last fiscal year.
Total cash, pledges and in-kind gifts to Georgia Southern University amounted to $22,363,915 during Fiscal Year ‘22, which ended on June 30, 2022. That surpasses the total from the previous year, which was also a record at $17.8 million. The previous record was $16.2 million raised in fiscal year 2019, the year that the University’s College of Business was named for Greg Parker.
The Georgia Southern Athletic Foundation, in conjunction with the Department of Athletics, significantly helped the University’s overall total with its own record-setting fundraising numbers for the 2021-22 fiscal year. The Georgia Southern Athletic Foundation raised a record $10.6 million in new pledges and outright gifts.
“This record of private fundraising is a tremendous validation of what we have accomplished over the last few years and of our vision for the future of the University,” said Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero. “I’m incredibly thankful to our donors for fueling the transformational power of education in Southeast Georgia.”
The average gift amount last year was $2,623, an increase from the 2021 average of $1,783. University alumni — 2,839 of them — contributed $8.9 million of that total.
Some of the major gifts to the university this past year included:
• The largest philanthropic gift ever committed to Georgia Southern Athletics, when Anthony Tippins and his family committed to the lead gift for the Indoor Practice Facility, which will be named in honor of this monumental gift.
The 100,000-squarefoot facility will provide an elite and year-round practice and training facility for all 17 intercollegiate athletic teams and give many sports a place to practice during inclement weather.
Tippins, originally from Claxton, is the current president of Coolsys Professional Solutions.
• A $1 million donation to the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing to develop the Advanced Processing Research Network (APRN) from Crider, Inc., of Stillmore, a global processor of shelf-stable and fully cooked protein products.
As the Criders have seen their business grow through automation technology, the need for talented engineers to program and maintain that technology is growing with it. They believe Georgia Southern holds a local opportunity to find the talent they need.