Contributions to the NIU Foundation reached an all-time high of $1.9 million during fiscal year 1987, and total assets are now at about $4 million.

Total Foundation income during the 1987 fiscal year amounted to more than $2.3 million, including investment returns, merchandise sales and contract services, Foundation Executive Director Richard Ubl said.

Ubl said contributions were up more than 75 percent over last year’s total of $1.84 million.

e attributed the $1.9 million in contributions in part to the university’s “maturation as a comprehensive university with a growing number of increasingly successful graduates.”

FY87 marks the fourth consecutive year the Foundation has seen increased contributions from alumni, according to Tom Montiegel, vice president for development and community relations.

“I am particularly pleased to see the alumni contributions increased by nearly 50 percent with more than 9,000 alumni contributing,” Montiegel said.

Montiegel said the Foundation has seen a contribution growth pattern every year. “We set our sights higher and higher each year,” he said.

Ubl said NIU alumni accounted for about 20 percent of the total contributions with corporations and foundations contributing more than 50 percent of the total.

“We received $750,000 from the Woodstock Conference Center this year,” Ubl said.

Ubl said the Foundation looks for about 20 percent of the donations from alumni each year, and that this year’s total “represents a continuation of a pattern established over the last five to six years. Contributions have gone up steadily every year.”

The high level of contributions sends “an important message to friends and corporations that graduates recognize the quality and value of their NIU degrees,” Motiegel said.

e said that contributions also come from corporations, other foundations, student’s parents, and “friends of the university.”

“A lot of our contributors listen to WNIU, follow NIU sports, or enjoy listening to the Philharmonic, and decide to donate towards any specific group,” Montiegel said.

Montiegel serves as a “liaison between the NIU Foundation and President LaTourette, explaining certain information in both directions,” he said.

Contributions to the Foundation are placed in various investments, but about $150,000 of the Foundation’s assets are placed in a stock portfolio called the South Africa Free Fund, Ubl said.

“The portfolio (the South Africa Free Fund) is comprised of companies and corporations that have no association with South Africa,” he said.

The NIU Foundation was established 1949 to provide financial support for NIU, and its contributions support student awards and scholarships, university programs, academic departments and library materials.

“We’re pretty much a bank for all contributions to the university,” Ubl said.