Light the Way Campaign Progresses in Spite of COVID-19 Costs
Image Courtesy of Light The Way website
By Jacqueline Jedrych
Light the Way: The Campaign for Catholic University kicked off on campus in 2019, to raise funds for Catholic University’s academic environment, faculty excellence, and student success. Its top priorities were the Athletics Department, the Columbus School of Law, and the Conway School of Nursing. Over the past year and a half, Light the Way has raised over $340 million of the $400 million goal. Although the long-term goals remain the same, due to costs related to the coronavirus pandemic, some of those funds have had to be reallocated.
After the university was rocked by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020, the school had to face additional costs such as sanitization, installation of cameras in classrooms, and on-campus testing, while losing a large revenue stream and reducing tuition. One of the largest and most impactful losses was the Legacy Program, the national collection from churches started by the bishops to fund Catholic University.
“That collection would generally bring in about $5 to $6 million dollars a year for the University to help support its operating budget,” said Vice President for University Advancement Scott Rembold. “This year, we’re anticipating a lot less because, for much of the year, people haven’t been allowed to go to church, it was unsafe. We are allowed to convene now, masses are happening in person… but for some of the areas people are still not going back in great numbers and there aren’t a lot of parishioners doing the online contributions.”
To help combat these expenses, new benefactors came forward to donate, and many others increased their previous donations. According to Rembold, only a few lost significant enough sources of income to have to cancel their usual donation. Based on current projections, the Annual Fund will do as well, or even better, than previous years.
In response to the pandemic, the university raised funds for the Crisis Response Fund, which distributed emergency grants to students in need of personal assistance, new increased financial aid packages, as well as new pandemic-related costs to the university. Light the Way raised roughly $2 million for this fund.
“Those three things together with the money we got from the Federal Stimulus Package and the money we will get from another stimulus package that’s about to pass, which we think we will get even more money than we did before, are really helping us to deal with this crisis.”
Even in light of new expenses, Light the Way is working towards its original pillars of student success, academic environment, and faculty excellence. Due to earmarked donations that cannot be allocated across pillars, some are progressing more quickly than others.
“We are almost to the goal on the academic environment piece, mostly by virtue of the Maloney Hall building and the new nursing school building,” said Rembold. “The student success we have raised a lot more money for scholarship support than we set out to do in the goal for undergraduates as well as graduate students… faculty excellence is taking longer, and while we are more than halfway there, we’ve got more to raise and that’s really going to be our focus, to support the faculty.”
To support Catholic University’s Light the Way campaign or view its upcoming events, visit the Light the Way website.
