Florida State's Raise the Torch campaign rakes in more than $1.1 billion

It was no secret Florida State University had exceeded the $1-billion goal for its ambitious "Raise the Torch" campaign.

As more than 800 administrators, staff and invited guests gathered at Ruby Diamond Concert Hall Friday evening, the only question was by how much.  

Cheers erupted when it was announced the university raised a grand total of $1,158,665,865 in gifts and pledges received from donors and supporters.

The campaign was launched in July 2010 and officially closed on June 30.

Friday night's event, sponsored by the FSU Foundation, was to recognize many of the campaign’s most generous supporters. Overall, FSU received 574,786 total gifts and commitments during the campaign, including 194 of $1 million or more.

“We are overwhelmed and grateful for such generosity because of the impact it will have on future generations of students and society as a whole,” FSU President John Thrasher said.

The record campaign comes on the heels of FSU moving up seven slots to become the No. 26th ranked public university in the country in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings released earlier this month.

The university said the money will be used to create or enhance more than 1,300 student scholarships, as well as help the university in expanding its recruitment of exceptional scholars. The campaign also helped to create 100 professorships. This fall, 240 new faculty members started at FSU, representing the largest faculty hiring initiative in its history.

The most significant accomplishment is the creation of the country’s largest interdisciplinary, degree-granting school of entrepreneurship, made possible with private support, particularly from Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation, who pledged a $100 million gift.

Back story:

• Florida State University wanted to raise $1 billion. They've exceeded that goal.
• Florida State announces $60 million football facility as part of Unconquered Campaign
• FSU opens doors to Jim Moran Building in downtown Tallahassee

The money was used to start and sustain the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship and offered additional support to the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, a program long supported by Ms. Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation.

“We are forever grateful to Jan Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation for the $100 million gift commitment that established this new school,” Thrasher said. “To put that in perspective, this $100 million gift is the largest single gift to a public university in the history of the state of Florida.”

The three top recipients of gifts were Athletics, ($371.8 million); the College of Business, ($183.1 million); and the Ringling Museum of Art, ($96.3 million).

The campaign helped FSU score the largest gift ever for its Panama City campus, a $3 million pledge from Bob and Judy Fleming to create an endowed scholarship fund for first-generation students from the Panama City area.

The Ringling Museum of Art was the recipient of several large commitments from donors in the Sarasota area, including gifts to help build a new Asian Art Center, the Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion and the Tibbals Center, as well as endowments to help expand collections and hire curators, and gifts of art objects.

"Raise the Torch" is FSU’s third university-wide fundraising campaign.

The Investment in Learning campaign in the 1990s raised $301 million, and the FSU Connect Campaign in the early 2000s raised $630 million. Previous campaign totals included the benefits of state matching gift funds, providing 14 percent of the money received as well as incentives to donors to increase their gifts.

Contact senior writer Byron Dobson at bdobson@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @byrondobson.