Donation of Historic Ranch Gives CSUF a Record Year: $5.5 Million

A sprawling 4.5-acre ranch, once owned by a pioneer Orange County family and donated to Cal State Fullerton for the president’s home, topped the list of gifts to the school in 1989--its best year for private fund-raising.

The property, which is worth about $2.2 million, is on the 200 block of West Union Avenue in Fullerton and was once owned by the late C. Stanley Chapman, the son of the founder of Chapman College. The donation in June by Chapman’s children through the El Dorado Foundation helped push the university to a total of about $5.5 million in donations--an 83% increase from 1988.

Other gifts of equipment, as well as money for scholarships and for an endowed chairmanship, made up most of remainder, according to a report to be presented to the Cal State University Board of Trustees on Tuesday.

“We received some very large gifts last year, and we are all very excited about the possibilities,” said Anthony A. Macias, vice president for university relations and development at the Fullerton campus.

Most of the money came from businesses. Individual donations also made up a large part of the total, but contributions from alumni lagged, university officials said.

The El Dorado Ranch, which features a two-story, 5,792-square-foot house and a tennis court, was also the largest donation ever from a foundation to the Cal State system.

“It’s a wonderful addition to the the arsenal of things we have to attract and hold quality presidents,” he said.

The house will also be used by the president to host a number of functions.

“It’s an opportunity for the university to become more involved in the community,” Macias said.

Another sizable gift came from Apple Computer Inc., which donated to the School of Natural Science and Mathematics $250,000 worth of equipment to establish a computer lab.

Rockwell International Corp. made the second of two $150,000 contributions to underwrite the school’s first endowed professorship in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. It is only the second engineering endowment in the Cal State system.

Not only was 1989 a record year for Fullerton, but also for the 20-campus Cal State system, which collected more than $66 million in gifts.

“In terms of total dollars, we’re doing very well,” said Robert D. Maners, the system’s executive director for University Development.

Maners said most of the contributions are coming from corporations.

“We do well in corporation gifts because this is where they get their people,” he said.

Maners said that Fullerton will receive an award Jan. 29 from the Cal State chancellor for its fund-raising success.

“I’m really happy for Fullerton right now,” Maners said.

Fullerton had the fifth-highest donation total of all the campuses and the fourth-greatest percentage increase from the previous year, according to the annual report on “Voluntary Giving.”

One area in which all the Cal State campuses fell short of expections was alumni contributions, officials said.

“We were not too hot in alumni giving to the schools,” Maners said. “Nobody cared about tracking their alumni a while back, so we don’t have their addresses and we can’t solicit them. . . . It’s a numbers game, and Fullerton has that problem too.”

CSUF DONATIONS

Millions of dollars: ‘83: $.2 ‘43: $.8 ‘85: $1.7 ‘86: $2.3 ‘87: $2.7 ‘88: $3 ‘89: $5.5