Small donors can have a big impact

By Susan Simpson

Published: July 5, 2008

STILLWATER — With gifts ranging from $15 to $25,000, a group of 528 donors to Oklahoma State University's fire protection and safety program has proven strength in numbers can have a big payoff.

The group contributed $370,000 for a new endowed professorship honoring former department head Dale F. Janes.

The $370,000 will be matched by money already given to OSU by billionaire Boone Pickens, and by a required state match, increasing the value of the endowed position to nearly $1.4 million.

"I'm glad we were able to pull it off,” said department head and professor Michael Larranaga. "We are very lucky. We have a lot of people that believe in the program.”

In late May, lawmakers announced a July 1 moratorium of state matches for private donations for endowed positions.

Larranaga and others began contacting alumni of the fire protection and safety program, hoping to raise $250,000.

He figures they made about 1,000 calls or e-mails. To his surprise, a majority of people agreed to donate.

"They saw that their investment, whatever it would be, would be quadrupled,” he said. "It completely exceeded my expectations.”

The fire protection and safety services department is one of the smallest academic units at OSU.

Five full-time faculty members, including one position endowed 20 years ago, train students for jobs in the fire, safety, industrial hygiene and hazardous material industries.

The $370,000 raised by fire safety alumni was part of $66.7 million raised at OSU in the last six weeks.

Other academic departments also pooled donations, bringing the total number of donors to about 900.

"People really responded to that opportunity,” said Kirk Jewell, president of the OSU Foundation. "When you see that 900 people responded and know that some are as small as $15, it demonstrates that small gifts can have just as much impact as big ones when we pool them. It allows donors to feel a part of it, whether they have $10, $10,000 or $10 million.”

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