History

Founded in 1961, the Oklahoma State University Foundation was initially charged with securing private donations to provide additional scholarship monies for the university. The OSU Foundation is the only entity recommended to solicit, receive and administer all private gifts on behalf of Oklahoma State University (OSU). Although we are a non-profit organization, the OSU Foundation maintains a close and cooperative working relationship with OSU.

The Foundation far exceeded its original mission to provide additional scholarships for Oklahoma's best and brightest high school graduates. Seven years after it began, the OSU Foundation achieved its first major milestone—raising $1 million for Oklahoma State. Nearly half a century later, private gifts in 2008 alone totaled more than $248 million.

As OSU's needs have expanded, so has the fundraising mission of the OSU Foundation. Over the years, gifts through the Foundation have provided millions of dollars for buildings, scholarships, graduate fellowships, laboratory and classroom equipment, endowed faculty positions, lectureships and many other university programs.

Currently housing more than 100 employees in our new building just south of campus, our operation and goals continue to broaden as the level of private support increases for our beloved university.

Through the generosity of OSU graduates, friends of the university, foundations and corporations, OSU Foundation assets have continued to increase through the years.

Although the functions of soliciting, receiving, managing and disbursing private gifts have made our corporation a complex one, the ultimate goal of the OSU Foundation remains the same as it was in 1961: uniting donor and university passions and priorities to achieve excellence.