Elizabeth City State Shatters Fundraising Records With Corporate Outreach, Alumni Engagement

Officials at Elizabeth City State University have announced a historic year of fundraising and alumni giving, attracting more than $1.4 million during the 2017-18 academic year and securing a record number of gifts from corporate and foundation donors.

The total represents the third largest single year of fundraising in school history. According to officials, ECSU received gifts from more than 1,400 alumni donors, increasing their alumni giving rate to more than 11 percent, good for third-highest in the University of North Carolina System.
The university also eclipsed records for the total number of gifts received, more than 4,440 in 2017-18 compared to 3,021 in the previous year, and with more than $681,000 received from 57 corporate benefactors.
“This is a great time to be a Viking! We are transforming and heading towards greater possibilities,” said Interim Chancellor Karrie Dixon. “The support displayed by the entire ECSU Community through giving is an example of the all-in approach that we are implementing here at ECSU. Together, we are enhancing our efforts and heading towards a brighter future, full of possibilities.”
The news of the historic year in campus philanthropy was announced on the same day that the school revealed a $100,000 donation from university trustee and alumna Stephanie D. B. Johnson, to endow a scholarship fund in supporting ECSU seniors in majoring mathematics or elementary education. The gift honors Dr. Johnson’s late husband Darnell, a long-serving secondary teacher, and college professor at Hampton University and ECSU prior to his death in 2017.
“It gives me such joy to provide this level of support to students at mine and my husband’s alma mater,” said Johnson. “Elizabeth City State University means so very much to both of us, and these scholarships cement a legacy that has always been extremely important to both of us. In this meaningful way, my husband’s spirit and story will live on.”
The philanthropic news punctuates continuing growth at the university, which projects increased enrollment for this fall and was removed from accreditation warning by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges in December.