Approximately $3 million has been raised during the last nine months for Syracuse University’s LA Giving campaign.

The Los Angeles campaign — part of the larger Syracuse University capital campaign — has raised a total of $54,144,153 as of Friday, said Ellen Beck, director of advancement for the West Coast region and SU alumna. The $3 million was raised after a focused regional fundraising push was made in southern California. 

The funds will go toward advancing SU’s LA initiative in areas such as scholarship creation and assuring the university attracts the most qualified faculty members, Beck said.

Community engagement initiatives, updating research facilities both on campus and at regional and study abroad centers, are also a target of the fundraising efforts, according to the campaign’s website. The campaign is set to end in 2012.

Fundraising has been aimed at alumni located in the southern California area, Beck said. An LA regional council was created to reach out to more alumni in the area. The council, which is volunteer-based, is made of a group of loyal SU alumni in LA. 

Members of the council help with raising capital by working to attract fellow alumni to fundraising efforts. Conveners of the council include SU alumni Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime, and Sean Carey, who holds a management position with Netflix, Beck said.

Jason Blumenthal, producer of movies including ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and an SU alumnus, serves on the council as well. The LA native said SU memorabilia was nowhere to be found in his hometown when he graduated in 1990. Fifteen years later, Blumenthal said SU bumper stickers are a common sight.

Blumenthal sponsors mixers and other networking events to connect recent graduates with other alumni and help fundraise. Four interns work in Blumenthal’s LA office per semester. He said his involvement with SU in LA, both as a member on the council and through exposing students to the entertainment industry, is his way of remaining connected with the university.

‘It’s my college. It’s where I got all the tools to build a career,’ he said.

Douglas Frye, another SU alumnus who serves on the regional council, said his involvement with the council includes trying to reconnect alumni who have lost touch with the university.

Frye, a 1974 graduate of SU’s College of Law, has been involved with the law school since he graduated. He said fellow alumni typically respond well to fundraising requests.

‘I think, generally, people are receptive and, generally, people have good memories of their years at Syracuse,’ he said.

Beck, director of advancement, said she personally meets with SU alumni for lunch on a daily basis in an attempt to connect the graduates’ passions with initiatives on campus.

Campaign efforts are not limited to improving only SU’s LA program. Donors from California are crafting plans to build a day care center on the SU campus, Beck said.

‘It’s not just what’s going on here, a lot of this support is going back to campus,’ she said.

SU programs based in LA have increased in interest and visibility, Beck said. The SU in LA semester program launched three years ago and separate immersion programs are available for students studying sport management and architecture. Immersion programs for students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications are also available.

The SU in LA staff has also expanded and are working, specifically, toward attracting more students from the West Coast.

Beck said, overall, she is enthused by the level of alumni engagement in the SU in LA program.

Said Beck: ‘It’s a huge success, the momentum, the excitement level. We’re painting this town orange. You can’t go anywhere without running into an SU alum.’

dbtruong@syr.edu

Published on September 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong