As the 2009-10 fiscal year comes to a close, fundraising at Kent State is once again at a record high despite the economic climate and a national trend of dwindling contributions.

“We haven’t really been affected by the recession,” said Steve Sokany, associate vice president for institutional advancement. According to the Associated Press, university fundraising fell 12 percent nationally in 2009.

Though they have not yet officially closed the books for this last fiscal year, Kent State has raised at least $3.1 million more than the previous year. Sokany said the total is at least $39,866,000. Unprocessed checks dated before the fiscal year ended could increase this value, but Sokany assured that it would not decrease. Sokany said the university’s fundraising goal was $33 million.

In addition to increasing monetary donations, the number of contributors has also jumped by about 3,400. The number of donors increased from 21,254 in 2008-09 to 24,642 this past year. The improvement in fundraising is part of a recent trend at Kent State. Sokany said that in the 2008-09 fiscal year, contributions jumped by $10 million. He said the university has hired more people to make fundraising easier, targeting alumni and organizations to get donors.

“I think people are investing in Kent State,” President Lester Lefton said. “They trust the leadership, they trust what we’re doing and they’re seeing positive results. They’re saying, ‘Here’s some money to help you do it.’”

While some universities are asking for less from their donors because of the times, Lefton said Kent State is asking for more. Lefton said presidents of universities spend 20 to 90 percent of their time fundraising. He judges his own fundraising commitment at between 20 and 30 percent of his time.

“These days, when state funding is significantly down on a per-student basis,” Lefton said, “public universities wind up having to raise funds in the same way as private universities do. In some ways, even more, because we do it on a fifth of the tuition that a private university does, but we have the same expenses.”