The Carolina Promise campaign has been counting donations over the past eight years, because the clock is ticking down on their June 30 deadline to raise $1 billion.
According to the Carolina Promise website, there's $47.4 million left to go, less than one-twentieth of the total sum.
The initiative, originally started in July of 2007, sought to bring in this large sum through contributions toward any area of USC. The idea didn’t belong to any one person, according to Jancy Houck, USC's Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations, but was a collaborative effort from the university’s leadership.
“If you think back eight years ago, it was a time when the economy was not so robust,” Houck said.
The state funding decreased "precipitously,” and that was the push that the university needed to begin Carolina’s Promise, she said.
The eight-year campaign, which ends June 30 of 2015, already has over 100,000 donors that have contributed to put this initiative where it needs to be, according to Houck.
“We’re right on track to be successful,” Houck said. “But it’s campaign wisdom that the last gifts are the hardest ones to raise because you’ve already gone after all the easy ones.”
The donation push applies to all of the USC campuses, not just Columbia, and Houck said the university is still pushing to close the gap on their goal. She was hopeful that people would continue to support the campaign until it was over.
The campaign aims to be “an investment in the future of the University of South Carolina that will allow us to improve the quality of life in our state and throughout the world,” according to the Carolina's Promise website.
“The promise of Carolina includes teaching our largest student population ever, launching this unprecedented capital campaign, and inspiring a better way of life in South Carolina and beyond through intellectual curiosity, sound science, and the pursuit of economic prosperity,” USC President Harris Pastides said.
It’s not the historical campus or the winning sports teams that generate the most buzz surrounding the campaign — although Houck said they certainly don’t hurt. For her, it’s USC's educative mission that entices donors to generously contribute to the university.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about the students, isn’t it?” said Houck. “That’s what resonates with our donors.”