![\"Fresno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FRS_EPZ_SAUL_PROFILE_04.JPG\" "\\"Fresno")
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Fresno State President Saul Jimenez-Sandoval has seen donations to the university grow significantly over the past three years. The university in the 2026 fiscal year brought in $44.4 million.<\/p>\n
ERIC PAUL ZAMORA<\/p>\n
ezamora@fresnobee.com<\/p>\n
Fresno State posted the second-best fundraising year in its history in 2026, despite questions about the governance and financial practices of a philanthropic foundation that was exposed in a highly-critical advisory review conducted by the California State University chancellor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Longtime foundation board members suggested the uncertainty stemming from that review and the exit of long-time board members including chairperson Vinci Ricchiuti would impact the university and its foundation, which manages more than $315 million in endowments and post-award grants.<\/p>\n
But Fresno State still brought in $44.4 million in philanthropic gifts. Brady Crook, the university\u2019s vice president for advancement, said it has a number of multimillion dollar gifts in the pipeline that could lead it to an annual fundraising record this fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust by the numbers, I think we would see that the foundation piece has not had much if any effect on it,\u201d Crook said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it\u2019s helped it increase, but from the standpoint of being able to build that out, it\u2019s a function of how the philanthropic partners are seeing themselves plug into Fresno State and the significant impact they can have.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur philanthropic partners have just been fantastic, and they\u2019re seeing the impact they have on the students and the faculty and how they\u2019re transforming lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The record is $50.2 million and was set in 2009 when Fresno State also received its largest single gift, $29.1 million to fund and construct the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.<\/p>\n
Athletics accounted for $13.8 million of the $44.4 million raised in 2026, setting a record for a second year in a row as Fresno State enters the Pac-12 Conference. It raised just $5.4 million in 2024, according to its NCAA financial report, but that jumped to $11.2 million in 2025 and jumped again last year.<\/p>\n
From 2010 to 2024, athletics averaged $5.7 million in contributions including donations from individuals, corporations or other organizations designated for the operations of sports programs or for the payment of debt service and lease payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible, if you think about it,\u201d athletics director Garrett Klassy said. \u201cNow, we have to get to $20 million, and we have some seven-figure gifts that we\u2019re getting ready to announce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to do that. We\u2019re limited in our revenue streams here based on the debt service payments at the Save Mart Center, the lack of premium seating at Valley Children\u2019s Stadium. For us, fundraising is going to be the lifeblood for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s fundraising efforts have shown significant gains over the past two years, across the board. Fresno State prior to 2024 was averaging $29 million in philanthropic activity annually, and the past three years it has averaged more than $40 million.<\/p>\n
Fresno State in 2026 received its first eight-figure commitment since 2019, a $10 million anonymous bequest. It also made significant gains with its Day of Giving, at the grassroots level. It raised $805,297 in 24 hours on its Day of Giving, a 32% increase over 2025 and a 72% increase from 2024, according to the university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State President Saul Jimenez-Sandoval has seen donations to the university grow significantly over the past three years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-408765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}