Largest U Of L Fundraising Campaign Officially Kicks Off Wednesday

The public launch of the largest fundraising campaign in University of Louisville's history is Wednesday.The "Charting our Course" campaign began silently three years ago. During the silent phase, U of L officials raised about 360 million dollars toward the campaign's 750 million dollar goal. Vice president of university advancement Keith Inman says the quiet start is common for large fundraising efforts."Typically what you try to do in campaigns is, obviously you want to get it organized, you want to get some momentum going, and classically you try to announce when you're close to 50% of the goal," he says.The campaign is more than twice as large as the university's previous drive in the 90s."We've had two previous campaigns: one in the 80s, the Challenge for Excellence which raised about $62 million; and then the bicentennial campaign in the mid-90s which raised over $350 million," he says.Inman says the money is necessary to offset cuts in funding from the state."We're certainly hopeful that we can increase the number of scholarships available and help the students not be the bearer of all that burden," he says.U of L has had to raise tuition in recent years to offset budget cuts. About 330 million dollars of the money raised in the new campaign will go toward academic programs, equipment and scholarships.