News Announcement
For more information contact Lynne Briggs or Cheryl Kight at
614-469-1950

Columbus, October 2009 

RUDOLPH/LIBBE, INC. HOSTS TOLEDO AREA KICK-OFF OF THE
OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES’ 2009-10 ANNUAL
CAMPAIGN – AREA GOAL SET AT $333,000

Tim Alter, President, Rudolph/Libbe, Inc. and Chair of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) Toledo area annual campaign for the second year, hosted the campaign meeting and kick-off on October 20 at the Toledo Country Club.  Serving as campaign vice chair for 2009-2010 is Roosevelt Gant, President of R. Gant, LLC in Toledo. 

The teams of area corporate campaign volunteers attend the kick-offs to receive solicitation training for their calls on current and prospective donors to educate them about and encourage their support of OFIC’s mission to support independent higher education in Ohio.  The campaign goal for the Toledo area for 2009-2010 has been set at $333,000.    

Alter welcomed the area corporate campaign volunteers and thanked them for their commitment of time and effort to help provide career choices and college access for students enrolled at OFIC member independent colleges and universities. He emphasized the importance of independent higher education in Ohio to the Toledo region’s economic stability and to the state’s future in a changing global economy.
 
Robert Helmer, President, Lourdes College, stressed to the volunteers the positive impact that campaign funds have on both students and OFIC’s member institutions. Lourdes senior Sarah Kurth from Swanton, Ohio spoke of her experience at Lourdes and the impact that scholarships provided by OFIC have had on her educational journey and her future. Kurth, an Accounting major, is the recipient of an OFIC Ohio Scholars Program scholarship through Farmers & Merchants State Bank. 

All of the 98,000 students enrolled at OFIC member colleges, which include Bluffton University, Defiance College, The University of Findlay, Heidelberg College, Lourdes College, and Ohio Northern University, will benefit from funds raised through OFIC’s campaign. One hundred fifty-nine students at these six northwest Ohio institutions have directly received scholarships through OFIC’s Ohio Scholars Program for the 2009-10 academic year.  There are presently 3,345 students who live in the Toledo campaign area enrolled in one of OFIC’s 34 member institutions across the state.

OFIC is the primary corporate and foundation solicitation organization for 34 independent Ohio colleges and universities and operates one of the largest, most comprehensive and diverse scholarship management services in the state. OFIC member colleges collectively enroll 98,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor’s degrees in the state. For 60 years OFIC has worked to highlight the leadership, value and excellence of independent higher education and has provided unrestricted operating funds and scholarship commitments through funds raised in annual solicitations of businesses and foundations, thereby assuring continuation of excellence in private higher education. OFIC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of Ohio’s corporate leaders, as well as presidents of the 34 member colleges.

The member colleges are: Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bluffton University, Capital University, Cedarville University, University of Dayton, Defiance College, Denison University, The University of Findlay, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franklin University, Heidelberg University, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Lourdes College, Malone University, Marietta College, Mount Union College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Muskingum University, Notre Dame College, Oberlin College, Ohio Dominican University, Ohio Northern University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Otterbein College, Urbana University, Ursuline College, Walsh University, Wilmington College, Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster.