A billion-dollar day



It is very hard to believe, but I am about one month shy of celebrating my five-year anniversary working for the OSU Foundation. Ever since my first few weeks as an intern, I’ve always imagined being here for a long time, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that I would hit this milestone. I'm just shocked by how quickly it got here!

I started work smack-dab in the middle of the busiest fundraising initiative the Foundation had seen. Boone Pickens had made his incredible $100 million matching gift for chairs and professorships, and the entire Foundation was working fast and furiously to match it by getting the word out to donors, soliciting and booking gifts before the state of Oklahoma changed its matching policy. It was 40 days and 40 nights of hard work. While it had its incredibly frustrating, not sure how we are going to do everything, pull your hair out moments, it brought everyone closer together. We were a team working to accomplish a goal bigger than any one of us could achieve. I cannot really take credit for any of this success because at the time I was still learning what I really did at the Foundation, but it was fun to be a part of it.

Today we celebrated another huge milestone in the Branding Success Campaign. Since December 2007 we have raised $1 billion for OSU! One billion. I can’t even fathom it. And while I do feel my actions both as an employee and a donor have contributed to our success this time around, it’s still not my victory. It’s just an incredible reminder of the power of generosity and the good in people. What a blessing it is for me to get to be a part of making people’s dreams come true. Not only the dreams of students and faculty members who are gaining an education and furthering their careers here, but also the dreams of donors who have achieved success and want to contribute to something greater than themselves. Together, we are changing the world in such a positive way. Day-in and day-out some of the magic can get lost in the details, but at the end of the day when I think about what I do, I get warm fuzzies. That’s why I’m still here, and I’m proud to call this my profession. Congratulations to everyone who has had a hand in this campaign both past and present, near and far. I think even my father could agree that it's a great day to be a Cowboy!



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