We Are LA Gives Back to Cal State LA

Cal State LA’s We Are LA Campaign Gets Alumni to Give Back

Joshua Letona, Contributing Writer

July 25, 2019

The We are LA logo runs on a monitor at the Cal State LA’s Administrative building ground floor. The fundraising campaign’s goal is to reach $75 million that is to be allocated throughout the university’s departments. It is now at $61 million and hopes to surpass its goal by next year

The We Are LA campaign has brought massive contributions to Cal State LA.

Headed by the executive director of Cal State LA, Janet Dial, We Are LA is a seven year campaign that began in 2015 to raise $75 million. The school has raised $61 million from more than 13,000 individual donors as of June 30, 2019.

“We had a capacity analysis done on our donor and alumni pool which told us 75 million was a sweet spot. With the alignment of a seven-year campaign and ending on the anniversary, we all agreed that would be a great number,” said Dial.

The mission for the campaign is to support the four strategic pillars of the university: Academic Distinction, Service and the Public Good, Student Success and an Inclusive Campus. Every donation goes towards those four categories to benefit each of the colleges within the university including athletics and the arts.

“All of our fundraising is what I’d call donor driven. We meet with the donor, we find out what interests them, what dollar amount they might be interested in giving,” she added.

Dial explained that the majority of donations come from alumni and some are friends of the school and that they have been “incredibly loyal and supportive” to Cal State LA.

The campaign is about $14 million from reaching the goal, but that does not mean Dial and her team will stop there.

“Our goal was to always exceed that campaign number, so I’m hopeful that maybe in the next few months we do. Then we’ll just keep going. We’re not going to close it,” said Dial.

“We never slowdown in advancement. We do thank our donors very well and we have a great stewardship program but we always are looking for the next seven or eight figure gifts.”

Cal State LA has already benefited from the fundraiser. Cal State LA’s art gallery was renamed to the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery from an endowment of the Silverman family.

Funding was given for the acceleration project over at the college of engineering, computer science and technology (ECST). The nursing department was renamed to the Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing.

Even endowed scholarships with the donors’ name that offer $25,000 or more for students.

The campaign is set to end in 2020 to align with the 75th anniversary of the founding of Cal State LA.

About the Contributors

Joshua Letona, Editor-in-Chief

Starting at the University Times in Spring 2019, Joshua Letona has worked his way as an intern to three different editors positions and now, Editor-in-Chief. He’s contributed to over 70 articles at the UT, along with reinventing the Culture section. Joshua’s passions lie in storytelling as he strives to be a filmmaker and entertainment journalist.

Marisa Vasquez, Editor-in-Chief

Marisa Martinez formerly worked as Editor-in-Chief at the Corsair Newspaper at Santa Monica College where she studied her way out of the community college to Cal State LA. There, she join the TVFM Journalism program to further her studies in News/Media while functioning as the Editor-in-Chief for the weeks ahead and working alongside with her fellow reporters and photographers.