Liberty University raises record $22 million

By Carrie J. Sidener
Media General News Service
Published: July 24, 2008

Liberty University’s planned-giving department raised a record $22 million in the first year since founder Jerry Falwell Sr.’s death.

That’s more than double the earlier $9 million annual record, set the previous fiscal year.

“I looked at $9 million last year and thought, ‘My goodness. How are we ever going to beat that?’” said Tom Arnold, director of planned giving. “And all of the sudden, the doors opened.”

The new record-holding fiscal year began six weeks after Falwell Sr.’s death in May 2007, and ended June 30.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. attributes success to the hard work of the planned-giving department in combination with the school’s continued strong presence.

“For years, there was a concern about Liberty’s permanence, and what would happen after my father passed,” he said. “I think people are starting to realize now that Liberty has a strong foundation, and it wasn’t just dependent on one man.”

Arnold said the gifts come in the form of bequests, charitable annuities, trusts and scholarships, and some of the funds will not become available until the donor’s death.

Some gifts are made with restrictions on how the money may be spent, he said, but most are unrestricted.

Falwell said the college currently is investing the unrestricted gifts in new construction projects and building the school’s endowment.

That also is how the school plans to spend a roughly $100 million surplus over expenses from the past two fiscal years, he said. That amount includes $29 million in proceeds from life insurance after Falwell Sr. died.

Falwell said most donors until now have been people who watched his father on the Old Time Gospel Hour in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

The next generation of support, he said, likely will come from alumni.

The department’s six planned-giving officers raise the money by traveling across the country and building relationships with donors, Arnold said.

Last year, the department made nearly 800 in-home visits, he said, and placed more than 13,000 phone calls.

Every other week, each field officer is on the road — this week, three are in Lynchburg and the others are visiting with potential donors in New Jersey, Illinois and Alabama.

“We’re almost like a pastor to some of them,” Arnold said. “We pray with them and send them get well cards, preach their funerals. We minister to the needs of the people also, and I think that’s what makes it feel like we become a part of the family, and they a part of our family.”

Only a few weeks in to the new fiscal year, the department already has raised about $2.5 million, he said.

“We’ve seen the ups and downs of this ministry over the last 25, 30 years and it’s exciting to be around now when we’re seeing some of the fruits of our labor,” he said. “This is not a job to any of us; it’s a calling. And we want to honor that.”