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CU Denver Comprehensive Campaign

 


 

CU Denver is currently preparing to launch its first comprehensive fundraising campaign. A comprehensive campaign is a focused fundraising initiative with an announced goal and timeline that supports strategic priorities. In addition to generating financial support, a successful campaign elevates the overall culture of philanthropy on campus. While the University of Colorado as a system has launched several comprehensive campaigns, ours will be the first for an individual CU campus.

The campaign will consist of a quiet phase and public phase. During the quiet phase, the university is identifying priorities, creating messaging and collateral that support them, and raising funds toward a projected goal. During the public phase, which we expect to begin in Fall 2025 or Spring 2026, the university will roll out the campaign themes, priorities, messaging, and goal more broadly among its external constituents.


Campaign Workshops

Thank you to the faculty and staff from across campus who participated in informational workshops leading into the inaugural CU Denver Comprehensive Campaign. We plan to develop and host more of these workshops based on the feedback provided.

Check back for a listing of Spring 2025 workshops and registration link.

Workshop Learning Objectives

We have developed this workshop, which is specific to each school, college, or area, in partnership with Marts & Lundy, one of the world’s leading fundraising consulting firms.

After attending this session you will:

  • Understand how a comprehensive campaign progresses
  • Learn how to partner successfully with Advancement 
  • Become familiar with the resources we can provide
  • Learn how to create a compelling case for your programs
  • Feel empowered to act on fundraising opportunities

Come away from this workshop with a better sense of how rewarding and joyful it can be to partner with our donors to make a positive and lasting impact on our campus community.

Scroll down to watch a pre-workshop video.

Workshop Materials


Advancement Overview

We know your time is valuable, but we would be grateful if you could take half an hour to watch this overview of Advancement prior to attending a campaign workshop. In this video, you’ll learn about who we are and what we do, which will allow us to spend more of our time together talking about how we can work together.

We recommends using YouTube's video settings to change the quality to "1080p HD" for the best viewing experience.


Campaign Priorities

A campus-wide committee* partnered with Advancement to review philanthropic data surrounding priorities that were tested during an external campaign feasibility study conducted by Marts & Lundy, one of the leading fundraising consulting firms in the country. The campus remains grateful to the CU Foundation for supporting the cost of this study. 

Following this review, the committee identified several core focus areas for the campaign and made recommendations to the Chancellor and Provost. The campus is rolling out these focus areas in stages with the following timeline:

Scholarships, Fellowships, and Student Success
May 2024 – December 2024

Workforce Preparedness and Development
November 2024 – April 2025

Research and Innovation
March 2025 – September 2025

With these focus areas in place, the deans and leadership of Strategic Enrollment and Student Success worked with their teams to identify individual school, college, and unit priorities that reflect these larger focus areas.

*The committee’s membership included:

  • Melisa Baldwin Vice Chancellor for Advancement
  • Scott Dawson, Dean of the Business School
  • Pam Jansma, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Katie Linder, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Innovation and Strategy
  • Marvin Lynn, Dean of the School of Education & Human Development
  • Monique Snowden, Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Enrollment and Student Success
Group of students sitting on a well-lit staircase interacting with one another and talking. .

Campaign Timeline

Horizontal timeline from Spring 2024 to Fall 2027 displaying three priority focus areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

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