Bud and Jan Richter, community and university benefactors for more than 60 years, will co-chair the Campaign for Fresno State for the next two years, it was announced by California State University, Fresno President John D. Welty at today’s fall Faculty and Staff Assembly.

“We are successfully building a regional and national group of donors willing to support the university and our plans for the future,” Welty said of the campaign’s successful first year, which concluded June 30.

The campaign raised $29 million in its first year, which includes philanthropic grants, deferred gifts (from trusts and bequests) and standard annual fundraising results such as cash, gifts-in-kind and pledges. The year also was devoted to hiring staff to fill key positions and building the ranks of prospective donors for major gifts.

To help inspire additional benefactors, Welty asked the Richters to co-chair the comprehensive campaign.

“Bud and Jan Richter have dedicated their adult lives to community service, and Fresno State has been a major beneficiary of their generosity and leadership,” Welty said. “They eagerly accepted the challenge to lead the effort to attract new major donors and inspire those who already support the university.”

The Richters’ successful Fresno-based soft-drink bottling business has allowed them to generously help Fresno State and the greater community. They also have led campaigns to benefit Fresno State in the past.

Bud Richter is a past-president of the Bulldog Foundation and was a Bulldog Stadium Steering Committee member. Jan Richter helped found the Women’s Bulldog Foundation.

Both of the Richters helped the Kremen School of Education and Human Development’s capital campaigns, established the Richter Awards for Excellence to honor faculty and staff, and were instrumental in planning the Teachers Honor Wall outside Kremen.

They have been honored by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives and with the Bulldog Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. They received the Fresno State Alumni Association’s Arthur Safstrom Award in 2005 for extraordinary service to Fresno State.

“We are very enthused that by 2011 Fresno State can be recognized as one of the Top 10 most community-engaged universities in the United States,” says Bud Richter.  “The long-term benefits to the quality of life in Central California will be very substantial.”
The campaign, says Jan Richter, “will shape the future of the campus and maximize opportunities for the university’s faculty and students.”

“They have been an inspiration in this community for more than a half-century, and now their guidance and counsel will provide a great legacy to this university,” Welty said of the Richters.  “Their involvement at this moment in the life of the university is key to achieving the goals we have set out for our future.”

For more information contained in this release, please go to the following Web sites:
The Campaign for Fresno State