About the Bradley Fund

Most of the 12,000-plus donors to Bradley University make their gifts through the Bradley Fund. This is the base of all support at Bradley and impacts almost every area on campus. Annual gifts provide for such things as: student scholarships; cutting edge equipment; new facilities; study abroad opportunities; innovative programs and initiatives. The majority of gifts are made via mail or by our student-staffed Bradley Fund phone program. Gifts through the Phone Program can be designated to any fund on campus and support a wide variety of programs and initiatives.

We hope that our extended family of alumni and friends enjoy our calls as much as the students do. These calls are critical to updating records, maintaining direct contact and gaining financial support for all of the students, faculty, staff and programs at Bradley University.

Each year over 30,000 phone calls are made and close to 150,000 pieces of mail are sent in an effort to reach all of our alumni, parents and friends. These contacts are made to allow our alumni, parents and friends the opportunity to directly impact the quality of education at Bradley. Our phone calls and direct mail pieces also help us to update our records, communicate new initiatives or exciting programs, and answer any question that our alumni, parents or friends might have.

If you would like to directly enhance the Bradley experience for current and future generations of BU students or would like to directly impact a specific area of the university, please make a gift.

Unrestricted Giving

Unrestricted gifts given through the Bradley Fund provide a pool of funds that are not restricted to specific program uses in colleges and departments. As such, these gifts are Bradley’s most flexible funding source, providing resources for innovative teaching grants, research start-up, travel for students and faculty, undergraduate scholarships, building restoration, and enhanced computer capabilities. Because donors do not designate these gifts for a specific project, college or department, the University uses these funds to support its top priorities or provide seed money for a variety of new initiatives. Unrestricted gifts are so vital to Bradley’s academic enterprise that they are often described as the greatest gifts donors can make. Unrestricted funds are distributed by the Bradley Board of Trustees, based on recommendations by University administrators.

For more information

Shelly Smith, Senior Director
Sisson 223, 677-3091
E-mail: ss@bradley.edu