Penn State delays public fundraising launch amid change in its development office, but says record giving continues
President Neeli Bendapudi said the school is raising more than a half billion annually.
Pennsylvania State University had been planning to publicly launch a multi-billion dollar fundraising campaign this month, its largest ever and first under President Neeli Bendapudi.
But the school has decided to delay that public launch amid a change in leadership in its development office.
“It is all extremely positive with our fundraising,” said David M. Kleppinger, board chair. “This was really driven by the changeover in leadership in the development office.”
Bendapudi in an interview Thursday said she’s not sure exactly when the public launch of the campaign, called Penn State Forever, will occur. But she said fundraising has been going very well since the quiet phase began in July 2023, a little more than a year after her arrival, and will continue.
About $545 million a year has been raised, compared to about $360 million per year in the prior campaign, she said.
“This year is going particularly well because our fiscal year ends June 30 so we still have several months, but we’ve already exceeded 500 million for this year,” she said. “We’re very excited it.”
Alyssa Wilcox, formerly senior vice president and chief campaign planning officer at Purdue University, was hired to lead Penn State’s fundraising office in January 2025. Less than a year later, Bendapudi told staff Wilcox had concluded her tenure at the university.
Bendapudi declined to discuss the reason. Attempts to reach Wilcox were unsuccessful.
The school then announced in January that Jay E. Davenport, vice president of development and alumni relations at Virginia Commonwealth University and its health system, would become Penn State’s vice president for development and alumni relations effective March 1.
Bendapudi said she wants to give Davenport time to meet the administrative team and top donors and learn the university’s priorities before publicly launching the campaign.
“We don’t get a second chance to make a great first impression,” she said. “So we wanted to extend the quiet phase since it’s going so well and have a public launch later.”
Penn State in 2022 concluded its largest fundraising campaign, a $2.2 billion, six-year endeavor that began in 2016 and included several eight-figure gifts. Among them were donations to name Penn State’s college of communications and college of nursing. The campaign was impacted by the pandemic but still exceeded its goal.
The campaign prior to that one ran during the major economic downturn that began in 2007 and the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal that began in 2011 and roiled the university for years. But the university still raised more than $2.1 billion by the end of that campaign in 2014.
» READ MORE: Penn State meets its $2 billion fund-raising goal ahead of schedule
The new campaign‘s goals will exceed the previous one, Kleppinger said, though both he and Bendapudi declined to say exactly how much the university is seeking to raise.
“We’re discussing it internally,” Bendapudi said. “We expect it to be definitely a bigger number.”
The school has been in the third year of the quiet phase of the campaign — schools typically launch quietly first and then begin fundraising publicly after they have secured some large gifts.
Kleppinger and Bendapudi said some gifts have already come in. They include: $20 million from Jeff and Ann Marie Fox to name the graduate school; a $55 million anonymous estate gift for student scholarships; $50 million from Tom Golisano and Monica Seles for Penn State Health’s Children’s Hospital; a $50 million gift from the Werzyn family to name the field at Beaver Stadium West Shore Home Field; $48.5 million from Schlumberger, Ltd. for Earth and Mineral Sciences; $25.2 million from Anthony Misitano for athletics; and $23.5 million from Mort and Sue Fuller for universitywide initiatives.
More than 235,000 donors contributed last fiscal year.
In announcing the hiring of Davenport, who reports directly to her, Bendapudi noted that it was “a critical time” in the fundraising campaign.
Davenport oversees a budget of more than $67 million and nearly 600 full-time staff members in both alumni and development.
Davenport in a statement at the time of his appointment said several of his family members are Penn State graduates. He’s a Pennsylvania native.
“I am excited to join the development and alumni relations team to help publicly launch our current fundraising campaign in support of its mission, deepen relationships with our alumni and donors, and advance President Bendapudi’s vision to improve the lives of our students, alumni and all Pennsylvanians,” he said.