NMU fundraising in final stage

NMU is now in the final phase of a comprehensive fundraising effort that has been underway since 2007.

The NMU Foundation is calling it “The Campaign for the Students of Northern Michigan University”.

The first six years have been a quiet phase in which the campaign was not publicized.

It also wasn’t originally intended to last this long.

“The economy took an interesting turn in ’08 and ’09, and so the decision was made by our Board of Trustees at that time to lengthen the campaign, so that we were sure that we would raise the amount of money that we had originally planned,” NMU Foundation executive director of advancement Martha Haynes said.

The campaign focuses on four areas. Three of them are affordability for students; attracting the best students and faculty; and research and career-building.

“Northern is unique in that we give a lot of our undergraduate students for research,” Haynes said. “That really does position them well once they’re out in the job market, and the last one is innovative learning environments.”

The campaign will end on June 30th of next year.

The NMU Foundation will announce the goal and how close they are to reaching it during Homecoming weekend in September.