Grand Canyon University is launching its first major fundraising campaign since reverting to its historical nonprofit status in 2018, seeking to raise money to support its mission of revitalizing the inner-city Phoenix neighborhood in which it resides.
The campaign, which kicks off during GCU’s 75th Anniversary Amethyst Gala celebration on Friday night, is unique in higher education in that the funds are not earmarked toward traditional causes such as an endowment, new facilities or stadiums, investments in academic offerings, or supplementing operational expenses or programs. Instead, funds will go toward GCU’s Five-Point Plan – a groundbreaking initiative launched in 2015 that is transforming the surrounding community by 1) serving families in need, 2) making neighborhoods safer, 3) improving home values, 4) supporting K-12 education and 5) creating jobs.
It’s an initiative, fueled mostly by volunteers, that no other university in the country is undertaking.
“We have a financial model that has allowed us to run the university very efficiently and invest in infrastructure without relying on traditional revenue sources such as endowments or state taxpayer subsidies,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “This fundraising campaign is instead an opportunity to put others’ needs before our own and continue the remarkable efforts we have started that are transforming our surrounding community.”
Specifically, GCU’s Five-Point Plan is focused on:
1. Serving families in need: GCU has partnered with CityServe to create 88,000 feet of warehouse space on its campus that, in just three years, has provided $15.39 million worth of free household goods to more than 74,500 families in Arizona. Goods include overstocked and donated items such as beds, furniture, heaters, fans, kitchen items, food boxes, etc. from major retailers such as Costco, Home Depot, Amazon and local businesses. GCU is the only university in the country to serve as a CityServe HUB. GCU CityServe is operated mostly by student and staff volunteers who unload trucks and work with GCU’s partners to distribute the goods.
2. Making neighborhoods safer: An initial 11-year, $2.2 million partnership with the City of Phoenix to improve safety in the Canyon Corridor has expanded into a collaboration of schools, businesses, churches, neighborhood associations and the city that is pushing back against what had become the epicenter of prostitution and other criminal activity in a heavy residential area that is home to numerous K-12 schools along 27th Avenue in Phoenix. GCU has invested $170 million over the past decade in redevelopment efforts along 27th Avenue. Overall, crime is down 34% in the last five years in the areas surrounding GCU, while violent crime is down 20% in the last two years.
3. Improving home values: GCU has provided both the funding and manpower to renovate 598 homes in its surrounding community through a first-of-its-kind partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Since 2015, more than $6 million has been raised and more than 37,700 volunteer hours have supported this effort.
4. Supporting K-12 education: GCU has provided free tutoring to 6,650 K-12 students from more than 450 schools at its Learning Lounge site, then built on that initiative by launching a Canyon Rising scholarship program that, since 2015, has raised $9.8 million and awarded more than 1,000 full-tuition scholarships to low-income high school seniors who otherwise may not have been able to afford college.
5. Creating jobs: In addition to employing 10,000+ people and partnering with a Grand Canyon Education services company that has 6,000+ employees, GCU has launched 10 business enterprises – including a golf course, hotel, two public restaurants, a merchandise company, and coffee and pizza companies – that provide management opportunities for recent graduates and employment opportunities for nearly 500 graduates, students and local residents while providing an economic stimulus to west Phoenix. GCU also offers free rent at its business incubator space, Canyon Ventures, that houses 17 start-up businesses. Six of those are already opening storefronts or headquarters in Phoenix.
“The Five-Point Plan that we are raising money for is not some conceptual initiative that we hope has an impact in the future,” Mueller said. “It is already producing real results and impacting lives in our community. This fundraising campaign will help us continue and build on those efforts.”
Just as important, Mueller said it is an opportunity to bring people together, especially amidst a nationwide college campus landscape that has been beset recently by divisiveness and unrest over political and societal issues.
“As Christians, serving others is a shared value,” Mueller said. “This is an opportunity to love our neighbors and come together in a way that brings prosperity and human flourishing.”
