RALEIGH (March 11, 2022) – Chancellor Randy Woodson knows what NC State University’s successful “Think and Do the Extraordinary” campaign means for the university.

When Woodson arrived at NC State in 2010, he saw a glaring need to deepen its endowment. And the University set its sights on $1.6 billion for the “Think and Do” campaign.

It met that goal two years early, in December 2019.

In the end – and in the midst of a global pandemic, no less – NC State raised $2,103,932,120 from nearly 130,000 donors from all 100 North Carolina counties, 50 states and 73 countries.

“This was really big for the Wolfpack family,” Woodson says in the accompanying video. 

What will that $2.1 billion do? Woodson lists the achievements:

• More than 1,400 new scholarship funds, many of which support multiple students. “There are 5,000 students at NC State receiving scholarships today that didn’t before the campaign,” Woodson says.
• 104 new endowed professorships, doubling the previous number.
• Two substantial new academic buildings – the Fitts-Woolard Hall engineering building and the Plant Sciences Building. NC State raised more than $150 million to match state bond funds for the two buildings.
• Two more endowed colleges – the Poole College of Management, based on a gift from Lonnie Poole; and the Wilson College of Textiles, based on a gift from Fred Wilson and his family.
• And three endowed deanships in the Colleges of Management, Engineering and Veterinary Medicine.

The effort “impacted all across campus, from facilities to programs to students to faculty,” Woodson says.

How much does it mean annually?

“Endowments are really savings accounts for the University,” Woodson explains.

The $2 billion endowment will generate almost $100 million a year to support the University, he says.

By comparison, when Woodson arrived at NC State 12 years ago, the University’s annual spending from its endowment was just $7 million.