Seeds for the Future

Vera Swanson hoists an armful of giant ragweed as part of a College of Agricultural & Life Sciences research project. In 2014, the Foundation helped CALS celebrate 125 years of advancing science and outreach. Photo courtesy of Vera Swanson.

Throughout 2014, the UW Foundation placed its focus not on the present, but on creating fertile ground for the university’s growth into the future. Increasingly, our eyes have turned toward the coming comprehensive campaign, an effort to help the UW make a major leap forward.

Titled All Ways Forward, the campaign will launch in October 2015, but Foundation and university staff have been working on plans and goals for many months. In 2014, Chancellor Rebecca Blank crystallized the four strategic priorities for UW-Madison, and those priorities will form the pillars of the campaign. These are the elements that lie at the heart of great universities:

  • Supporting students
  • Enhancing students’ Wisconsin Experience
  • Investing in faculty excellence
  • Nurturing research and discovery

In addition to preparing for the upcoming campaign, we celebrated major milestones and helped to highlight the UW’s achievements, past and present. These included the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Philanthropy Council, an effort by the Foundation to engage the UW’s alumnae in helping to shape their alma mater. And it included marking the 125th anniversary of the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences (CALS).

CALS has one of the UW’s great stories. Its scientists and scholars have been helping to build Wisconsin’s economy since the nineteenth century. Their discoveries have fostered the dairy industry and produced medical innovations, such as the drug Warfarin. We’re proud to celebrate the great things about Wisconsin because these achievements are the kinds of things that you, our investors and supporters, are hoping to stimulate. In the months to come, as the campaign gets under way, you’ll hear more about the great things going on at Wisconsin. We trust you’ll find the work on campus as inspiring as we do.