University Update 02.15.24

The following information was presented at the Board of Trustee meeting at Christian Brothers University on February 13, 2024.

Financial Report

We are projecting to end this fiscal year (May 31, 2024) with a loss of $2.5 million compared to the budgeted loss of $5.2 million.  The difference is due to the improved performance of our endowment given recent stock market conditions.  This $2.5 million loss assumes we are successful in raising the additional $5 million above normal fundraising mandated by the Board of Trustees.  

Advancement

Fundraising metrics over the past four months have been encouraging overall:

As of January 19, we have raised a total of $4.1M of the $9M unrestricted revenue goal, which reflects a 100% increase year over year. Since that time, we have confirmed a bequest of $1.3M from the spouse of an alumnus. Including recently secured pledges, we need to raise an additional $3.5M to hit our goal by May 31st.  Currently, the advancement staff is working with eight (8) donor prospects on gift proposals that, if successful, are projected to raise an additional $4M. In addition, we are engaging with many other prospects who are in earlier stages of cultivation and solicitation.   
To date, CBU has received gifts from 226 first-time donors. The annual fund is outperforming the three-year average at this point in the fiscal year. Board support now stands at $3.65M in commitments from 19 trustees.

Since September 28th, five (5) alumni town hall/forums have been held, and two more are currently planned.  We published the first Bell Tower Alumni Magazine since 2021, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. An alumni Homecoming event is planned for this weekend with 150 registered guests, compared to 50 last year – further demonstrating alumni support of CBU. This weekend also marks the official unveiling of our new Engineering Packaging Lab, with 90 guests currently registered.

Enrollment

Inquiries from undergraduate prospects are up over 685% from this time last year, while completed applications and admits are up 38%.  Deposits are comparable to this time last year, which is encouraging given the issues created by the change in the FAFSA application.  

Historically, one of every three prospective students who attends an event on campus chooses to come to CBU.  Thus, events are very important to our enrollment strategy.  We had a successful Leadership Scholarship competition at the beginning of the month, and another planned for March 2nd.  Our next Preview Day is this Friday.  Because of the overwhelming response to our Fall STEM Day, we are hosting another one on February 26th.  We are also having a day for our admitted students called BucMania on April 13th.

Blessed Brother James Miller

During our mission moment, Board of Trustees member Brother Frank Carr spoke about the life and martyrdom of Brother James Miller.  Brother James was killed in Guatemala on February 13, 1982 while working at a school there.  Brother Tom Sullivan also offered a reflection on Brother James during Mass in the Chapel.  Both Brother Frank and Brother Tom were classmates of Brother James.

Brother James (Santiago) is important to many CBU members because he is the first De La Salle Christian Brother from the United States to be beatified. He was also part of the Midwest District and attended Saint Mary’s University Winona. Like many of our saints and martyrs, Brother James was a regular person.  He loved manual labor and working with the poorest of the poor.  He had a love for the people of Central America and felt called to this mission field.  

Response from our Board of Trustees Members

The Board wishes to express their heartfelt appreciation for the hard work of every member of our campus community to get us to this point in such a short period of time.  They left the meeting with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the future of our university.