News Releases

USM Receives Prestigious Kresge Challenge Grant

June 30, 2006

The Kresge Foundation's grant is contingent on the university raising $3.1 million by June 30, 2007. The $3.1 million balance is the amount required for USM to reach its campaign goal of $20 million in private donations.

The Kresge Foundation's Capital Challenge Grant Program is designed as an incentive and a tool that enable non-profit organizations not only to meet immediate capital needs, but also to build long-term relationships with donors and volunteer leaders beyond the building project. The challenge requires organizations to meet 100 percent of their fund-raising goals.

Competition for these grants is intense. In one recent year, for example, The Kresge Foundation reviewed 636 proposals and awarded just 175 grants to organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.

"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.

"The award of this challenge grant speaks volumes about the quality and importance of our work," said USM President Richard L. Pattenaude. "It's recognition from a highly regarded foundation that USM has the volunteer, private support and the capacity to sustain and build upon that support for the betterment of the university and the communities we serve."

USM announced the $25 million "Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign" in April of 2005. Carol Wishcamper of Freeport and Richard McGoldrick of Cape Elizabeth are co-chairs of the campaign, the largest in USM's history. The $25 million goal includes $20 million in private donations and $5 million in public funds.

University Commons -- the campaign's centerpiece -- will be located on university-owned land along I-295 in Portland, between USM's Abromson Community Education Center and the Glickman Family Library. The Commons will be the building site for the USM 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; and a redesign of the Glickman Family Library's first floor so that the main entrance faces campus, rather than Forest Avenue. The Commons also will feature a public promenade along Bedford St. The complex is designed to ensure that USM has the physical capacity to better serve students and the public.

Later this summer, USM will file applications with the city of Portland to initiate the permitting process. It is hoped that site work will begin in late 2006.

The Kresge Foundation is a $2.9 billion national foundation that builds stronger nonprofit organizations -- catalyzing their growth, helping them connect with their stakeholders, and challenging them with grants that leverage greater support. The Foundation concentrates its programming on capital campaigns as a key opportunity for nonprofit growth. In 2005, the Foundation awarded 217 grants totaling $131,770,027 to organizations in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Mexico.

The Kresge Foundation was established in 1924 by Sebastian Spering Kresge, a founder of the chain of retail stores which were incorporated as the S.S. Kresge Company.

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