Welcome to Fundraising Friday, AB Today's weekly digest of recent developments in development.
The University of Missouri athletic department announced Wednesday a transformative $3 million gift from longtime supporters and Mizzou Leadership Circle members Paul Vogel, who holds three degrees from the university, and his wife Lynn Ann. This commitment will assist the Competitive Excellence Fund, which is unrestricted support of Missouri's efforts to compete for championships through revenue sharing, recruiting and other impactful opportunities, while also creating a new exclusive donor lounge in Mizzou Arena.
University of Rhode Island football great Mark Cruise and his wife Sue Cruise, a 1984 URI graduate, have gifted their alma mater $2 million to both establish a new endowment fund supporting Ram student-athletes and to rename the football team's practice field in Cruises' honor. The financial contribution represents the largest single monetary gift the URI football program has ever received. According to the athletic department's Tuesday announcement, most of the gift — $1.5 million — will create the Mark '81 '84 & Sue '84 Cruise Endowed Scholarship program. The fund will provide an annual scholarship to a university student-athlete, preferably a football player, from within the area surrounding Cruise's hometown of Brockton, Mass. Subject to approval by the URI Board of Trustees and the Rhode Island General Assembly, the football practice field adjacent to the Ryan Center and Meade Stadium will bear the name "Mark S. Cruise '81 '84 Football Practice Field." The $500,000 collected from the naming rights will support URI's renovations to the football locker rooms and to Meade Stadium.
Bill and Jill Gassen have gifted the University of South Dakota athletics department $1 million toward the future indoor track and field facility, the Gassen Family Fieldhouse, as announced Tuesday by athletic director Jon Schemmel. The new indoor facility will feature a 200-meter banked track with a pair of perimeter warm-up lanes, plus a 60-meter straightaway. It will also feature a pair of long jump/triple jump pits, two pole vaulting stations, two high jump areas and a pair of throwing cages. The venue will feature elevated seating for 2,000 spectators and a viewing concourse that opens to the track and field events below. As the new home of Coyote track and field, the facility will also include coach offices, a recruiting lounge, a training and nutrition center and locker rooms.
Female student-athletes at Central Michigan University will now have more opportunities to grow personally and professionally thanks to a $350,000 grant from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, founded by alumna Renee LaBelle Parsons and her husband Bob. According to the athletic department's Monday announcement, the grant enables CMU Athletics to launch EmpowHER Leadership, a women’s student-athlete program designed to cultivate confidence, resilience and career readiness through mentorship, experiential learning and community impact. The donation was revealed Sunday at CMU’s National Girls and Women in Sports Brunch attended by female student-athletes and community leaders.
Total amount of these gifts:
$6,350,000
Running total for 2026:
$166,450,000
Total amount tracked by AB Today in 2025:
$1,671,578,500
