St. Mary's University in Winona gets $25 million gift — with some conditions

ROCHESTER – St. Mary's University is set to receive a $25 million donation over five years beginning in 2025, thanks to an alum who has charged the school to match the gift with a $100 million fundraising campaign by June 2024.

The benefactor and his family, who wish to remain anonymous, also want the university to increase its undergraduate enrollment by 100 students by 2025.

The Rev. James Burns, St. Mary's president, said the donation will go into the university endowment fund — $5 million a year through 2029 — and be used for operating expenses, including staff wages, student life activities and facilities operations.

"Those things aren't always where donors and benefactors typically think," Burns said.

The gift — the largest in school history — is a reversal of fortunes for the Winona-based Catholic university, which last year said it was cutting 11 liberal arts majors because of declining student enrollment and financial concerns.

Enrollment at St. Mary's undergraduate-focused Winona campus has fallen steadily for more than a decade — from 1,272 students in fall 2012 to 971 in 2021 to about 850 students last fall.

The gift came about as university officials sought feedback on program cuts and strategic goals. Burns said St. Mary's started conversations with the benefactor's family last fall and finalized the funding over the past few weeks.

University officials say they're already making progress on the donation's conditions. About 22% more incoming undergrads have enrolled and put down tuition deposits than this time last year, while the school has already raised nearly $9 million toward the $100 million match drive.

"It's a truly transformational gift," said Gary Klein, the university's vice president of advancement and a chief fundraiser. "I haven't wrapped my head around it completely yet."

The donation could be rescinded if the university fails to meet the benefactor's challenges, but Klein said St. Mary's has never failed to meet matching conditions for an endowment.

University officials said their endowment fund typically sits at somewhere from $75 million to $100 million. This latest gift, along with the match drive, will more than double the university's fund.

Burns said the hope is that the increased funding will lead to partnerships with other universities and southeast Minnesota groups, increasing St. Mary's outreach and academic opportunities.

Yet St. Mary's will continue to phase out the previously cut liberal arts majors, which include English, music, theater, Spanish, art and actuarial science.

"We're not looking to resurrect those because for a school of our size, we can't do all things for all people," Burns said. "So we have to make some strategic decisions about what we can actually do and do well."

Burns said classes and opportunities in those majors will still be offered, including the university's Page Theatre series, which paused shows because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the new funding will allow St. Mary's to concentrate on a few key goals it had put on hold in recent years.

The university plans to hone its health care-related programs to focus on rural care and geriatric care. Officials are looking to expand scholarship programs and create more paths for students to earn degrees, such as spending two years working on a bachelor's and another two for a master's in health care, business and technology, or education, which Burns said are among St. Mary's largest programs.

"This has allowed us to pivot back to those things," he said. "And with even greater opportunity to reflect on how we want to engage those areas."