Exiled from campus, in a towering 10-story building off State Street near Eisenhower Parkway, one of the most vital offices to the University’s operations stands in plain view, but hidden from the eyes of campus.

The building’s rigid design and obscure location do little to suggest the big impact the offices on the building’s upper floors have on the day-to-day lives of nearly every person on campus.

While many on campus are unaware of its presence, the University’s Office of Development plays a key role in funding operations on campus — a business whose reach spans from North Campus to the Big House and from the country’s East Coast to the Pacific Ocean.

Each year the office helps raise hundreds of millions of dollars that go toward a wide range of activities and services, including student financial aid, endowing professorships and funding new campus construction projects.

With such a vast array of services funded either fully or partially through private support, the Office of Development is essential to the University’s ability to function.

In a series of interviews over the last two months, officers from the University’s development office have stressed the importance of gifts, both large and small, that make it possible for the University to operate at what they consider to be its full potential.

Even in the midst of an economic crisis, private support has remained strong as gifts from alumni and non-affiliated donors help maintain the University’s stature and grow it for future generations.

Whether in the form of major gifts from wealthy alumni, a $50 check in response to a phone call, a house left by a deceased faculty member or a gift from a graduate living halfway around the world, individuals comprise the largest group of donors to the University.

The Development Office’s diversified fundraising strategies span from the smallest individual gifts to a multi-million dollar donation from gigantic corporations to help fund innovative scientific research projects that lead to groundbreaking discoveries in their industry. Foundations from across the globe give to the University, as well, helping to solve some of the world’s most pressing social issues, like homelessness, illiteracy and environmental destruction.

At the University, donors know their money can support virtually any cause they desire — ensuring that University students will remain the leaders and the best. And all this rests on the shoulders of officials in the Development Office to make sure that this steady stream of support continues to flow.

In the first part of a five-part series, today's article will look at the growing significance of the Development Office in campus life.

An investment unlike any other

“This University intends to continue to become one of the world’s leaders in higher education,” Vice President for Development Jerry May said in an interview last month. “The only way that is going to happen is if we continue to make philanthropic partners a big part of the quality of this institution, so we will continue to grow philanthropy and have high aspirations for raising more money in the future.”

The University’s rich history of philanthropic support, May said, remains a key element of the school’s growth and development.

University President Mary Sue Coleman has made similar remarks, including a speech she gave during the Michigan Difference Campaign finale celebration last November, where she called a donation to the University “an investment unlike any other.”

“It is an enterprise that advances worthy ideals, creates productive jobs and opens the doors to possibilities for the students who walk through them,” she said at the time.

In the current economic situation, the importance of philanthropy has become increasingly clear.