When Judge Charles Trumbull Hayden was first lobbying the Arizona state legislature for a normal school, he knew that his chances would improve if the land for the proposed school was a gift to the territory. The land he wanted belonged to pioneer George Washington Wilson, a Tempe butcher. Wilson agreed to sell five acres to Hayden and his support group for $100 an acre—and then Wilson gifted his remaining 15 acres to the new school.
A group of Valley cattlemen and farmers established the Agricultural Advisory Council in 1947. The original organization was formed to help President Grady Gammage acquire land adjacent to the Tempe campus and to hold it until the Arizona Board of Regents could purchase the property. Members of the original council purchased almost 400 acres during the post-World War II years—about half of main campus.
The Arizona State College Foundation was incorporated in 1955 to broaden the mission of the Agricultural Advisory Council. Now called the ASU Foundation Board of Directors, the Board was instrumental in raising support for all educational areas. During these years, the ASU Foundation:
- Committed $350,000 to purchase the 320-acre Jones Farm in 1956 (now ASU Research Park).
- Committed $115,000 in 1957 to purchase land north of the College for a new stadium.
- Recruited Daniel E. Noble to the Board in 1958, securing a pledge of $150,000 from Motorola to support engineering.
- Purchased the Ninenger Meteorite Collection with support from the National Science Foundation.
- Provided equipment funding to launch KAET-Channel 8.
- Led the public effort to pass Proposition 200, which turned Arizona State College into Arizona State University in 1959.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ASU Foundation continued to raise funds to support a broad range of university initiatives, including:
- Funding to support the construction of Hayden Library and the ASU College of Law.
- Funding to finance and build Packard Stadium.
- Establishing a pooled income fund and life annuity to launch a gift planning program for ASU.
- Receiving and managing Castle Hot Springs, a 165-acre resort property gifted by Dr. Mae Sue Talley, which would ultimately provide the foundation with $3 million to start an endowment.
The growing needs of the university caused the foundation to begin planning for ASU’s first comprehensive campaign in the early 1980s. This community-wide effort expanded the role of the foundation to include identifying major gift prospects and ensuring that the assets of the foundation were managed to maximize returns and protect investments.
Under the leadership of ASU President Russell Nelson and ASU Foundation board members Katherine K. (“Kax”) Herberger, Budd Peabody and Bob Bulla, the Centennial Campaign for ASU raised more than $114 million for ASU and increased foundation assets from $3.1 million to $28.5 million.
Other highlights of the campaign included:
- Lead gift of $2 million to establish Karsten Golf Course, a $6 million capital investment.
- The Sundome Performing Arts Center from Del E. Webb Corporation.
- More than $30 million in land and construction funds, including the Nelson Fine Arts Center on Main Campus and the Sands Classroom Building and Fletcher Library at ASU West.
- More than $12 million in new scholarship funding.
- The Robert B. Dalton Endowed Chair in Cancer Research in addition to almost $10 million in other endowed faculty positions.
A number of precedent-setting gifts were received by the foundation in the early years of the decade, including the largest cash donation in ASU’s history. The $4 million gift from Del E. Webb Foundation was used to endow and name the School of Construction. Other notable gifts included:
- $1.5 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for undergraduate research in biology.
- Completion of $1 million gift from PepsiCo to fund the PepsiCo Scholars program for MBA students.
- $340,000 gift from the G. Robert Herberger Fund to support the Herberger Center for Design Excellence.
- $500,000 gift from Virginia M. Ullman for a professorship in ecology.
The growing community support caused the ASU Foundation to adopt a new strategic plan in 1992 with two critical goals — increasing the foundation’s endowment funds to a minimum of $75 million by 2000 and launching ASU’s second fund-raising campaign, the ASU Campaign for Leadership.