‘Griz Pride, Grit and Generosity'
During the 2010s, donors empowered students and faculty, while fostering a new era of opportunity.
November 12, 2025
This story is part of “75 Years of Impact,” a celebration marking the University of Montana Foundation’s 75th anniversary. Throughout the year the Foundation will share stories illustrating the profound impact of donors’ philanthropy at the University of Montana across the decades. To learn more visit SupportUM.org/UMF-75.
For Terry and Patt Payne, supporting a hub for Indigenous education, community and culture at the University of Montana was about more than driving progress through philanthropy.
It was a way to honor family connections, old and new.
Patt Payne’s grandmother had played on the Fort Shaw, Montana, Indian Boarding School girls' basketball team, who were crowned world champions at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Over a century later, Terry and Patt’s son and daughter-in-law remained active with Native culture and traditions.
Most importantly, however, Terry Payne said the family was inspired to help realize a project that would attract international acclaim to UM’s Native American programs and services, encouraging more Indigenous students to attend and graduate from the University.
The Paynes lent significant support to what became the Payne Family Native American Center during the UM Foundation’s “Invest in Discovery” campaign during the 2000s. When the building opened in 2010 — on the site of a historic Salish Indian encampment at the eastern edge of the Oval — it marked the beginning of a pivotal decade for UM.
As communities nationwide recovered from the Great Recession, universities increasingly emphasized economic mobility and service to groups who faced barriers to higher education. Just as they’d done for the previous 60-plus years, donors greeted the demands of these new times with passion, helping the University reaffirm and expand its role as a center for civic engagement, inquiry and leadership.
Today, the Payne Family Native American Center is the heart of Indigenous learning and community at UM. It houses the Native American Studies program and the Elouise Cobell Land and Culture Institute, supporting education on land use, culture and storytelling.
The building features technology-equipped classrooms, study areas, meeting rooms and the Bonnie Heavy Runner Gathering Space. Its design includes a 12-sided rotunda, symbolizing Montana’s 12 federally recognized tribes, and a Star-Gazing Room that blends astronomy with Native sky lore through public shows and storytelling.
“We feel proud and blessed that our family was able to participate,” Terry Payne said, in the 2009 UM President’s Report. “And we weren't alone. Many people stepped up in a big way."
The first facility of its kind in the nation, the Center reflects the student-first, future-focused values that defined donor giving in the 2010s. Its opening reinforced UM’s commitment to world-class education for all and signaled that the University’s supporters remained rooted in honoring Montana heritage while expanding access and deepening community engagement.
This spirit, enduring generosity and leadership of UM alumni, friends, families, organizations and foundations laid the groundwork for what would come next:
The most ambitious and successful fundraising campaign in Montana history.
‘Griz Grit' in Action for 'Campaign Montana'
When describing the values of “Campaign Montana,” in the Winter 2019 issue of the “Montanan” magazine, campaign co-chair Mark Burnham chose five simple words:
“Griz pride, grit and generosity.”
Launched with a quiet phase in July 2013, “Campaign Montana — Think Big. Be Bold.” once again set out to reimagine the scope of what private giving could accomplish at the University. It was a truly unprecedented effort, as each college and school, as well as programs including Grizzly Athletics, the Flathead Lake Biological Station and the Montana Museum of Art and Culture established fundraising objectives for the campaign.
With Betsy Ross Wilcox and A. Warren Wilcox serving as co‑chairs during its quiet phase, “Campaign Montana” initially set out with a goal of inspiring $320 million in giving. Just as they had during comprehensive campaigns in each of the previous three decades, UM’s dedicated donors shattered expectations, surpassing goal after goal during its seven-year run.
When its public phase launched in October 2018, with Mark and Cheryl Burnham as chairs, the goal had already increased to $400 million. Two years later, as the campaign entered its final push, that goal rose again to $440 million.
By its conclusion in September 2020, “Campaign Montana” surpassed even that mark, raising nearly $451 million from over 34,000 donors (including more than 16,000 first-time contributors) from all 50 states.
The results were staggering, elevating every UM student, college, school and several signature UM programs, including:
- More than $126 million donated for student scholarships and other support
- More than 500 new undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships established
- Nearly $91 million for academic programs, research and innovation
- More than $50 million to support new or renovated facilities
- More than $45 million to support faculty and staff, including 16 new endowed faculty positions
- More than $110 million committed through planned gifts to provide critical support to UM in the future
The support delivered by “Campaign Montana” was essential to UM’s mission. Donor giving translated into unmatched investment in scholarships, faculty support, dynamic learning environments and academic excellence. It expanded access to higher education, enhanced career preparation and touched the lives of thousands of students for years to come.
“Campaign Montana” was a historic effort — an anchor for a decade during which UM saw unprecedented waves of giving.
Comprehensive, Campuswide Support
In October 2016, as part of “Campaign Montana,” the UM Foundation announced the single largest gift in the 123-year history of the University.
William A. and Carolyn Franke and their family had stepped forward to provide $24 million to benefit UM's nationally renowned College of Forestry and Conservation and the University's Global Leadership Initiative (GLI).
Their record-breaking gift uplifted several of the campaign's top priority areas of giving, providing $18 million for faculty, student and programmatic support to the College of Forestry and Conservation, with a focus on research and experiential learning.
The Frankes’ generosity created two endowed faculty positions at the College of Forestry and Conservation (the W.A. Franke Endowed Faculty Chair in Forest Conservation and W.A. Franke Endowed Faculty Chair in Watershed Hydrology), as well as a sustainability fellows program, and provided funds for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, internships and innovation, study abroad and service-learning projects.
An additional $6 million was directed to the GLI, which offers students unique co-curricular, experience-based educational opportunities and professional training that positions them to serve as leaders, driving solutions for some of society’s greatest challenges.
In recognition of the gift, the College of Forestry and Conservation was renamed for William A. Franke. The Global Leadership Initiative was renamed for the Franke family.
In 2020, the Franke family funded an additional faculty endowment, the Professor of Forestry and Conservation, in the Franke College.
The Franke family's landmark investment exemplified the comprehensive reach of “Campaign Montana” — bolstering faculty excellence, innovative programming and the area perhaps most deeply impacted during the campaign: a commitment to students themselves.
Revolutionizing Student Success
At the heart of “Campaign Montana” was its focus on student support.
During the campaign, donors contributed over $97 million to scholarships — more than any other giving priority — providing essential financial support and access to thousands of students.
Scholarship gifts came in all sizes, including record-setting major contributions that made truly life-changing impacts.
In 2014, Tom Cotter, a UM alum and Townsend, Montana native, pledged an $11 million estate gift — the largest scholarship commitment in UM history. Today, his endowment annually generates key scholarship aid for students with financial need.
In 2016, a $1.7 million estate gift from Dorothy Rochon Powers — the first female chair of the UM Foundation Board — created the Elwood and Dorothy Rochon Powers Scholarship for Montana high school students.
That spirit of generosity also appeared in unexpected ways. In 2014, a donor who wished to remain anonymous sent an unannounced $5 million check by U.S. mail to fund student scholarships.
But the effort went far beyond providing scholarships.
It also helped strengthen access to resources and programs that ensured students could thrive and persist to graduation. This included faculty mentorship, experiential learning, academic advising and career services to help students build skills, connect to their values and interests, and prepare for impactful careers and lives of purpose.
Donors supported services that aided UM’s holistic approach to empowering students, allowing them to develop the professional acumen and critical thinking skills needed to navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex world, while being immersed in a vibrant campus community that emphasized overall wellness, work, study, engagement and recreation.
Gifts made during “Campaign Montana” also helped establish the Larry and Dee Dee Gianchetta Student Success Center at the College of Business, which became a campuswide model for student support. Joe Whittinghill and Blake Takamura’s vision and leadership gift to establish a Career Planning Center serving students pursuing degrees in humanities, science and social science programs was instrumental in providing students with resources to build lives and careers of impact.
Donors also backed the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation’s Native American Natural Resource Program, which provides services and resources to help Native students have a successful academic experience.
Empowering Academics and Community Outreach
Generous donor contributions also expanded opportunities vital to the student experience, empowered groundbreaking, faculty-led research, fieldwork and innovation and reinforced the University’s commitment to enriching and serving communities.
The $45 million raised to support faculty and staff during “Campaign Montana” included helping establish 16 new endowed faculty positions that continue to help UM recruit and retain top faculty.
Two UM families — the Burnhams and the Sprunks — came together in 2016 to help the College of Business create UM’s first endowed dean’s position, a donor’s gift established UM’s first chair in the humanities and additional gifts established or endowed named chairs, professorships and faculty fellowships in a number of disciplines. A 2014 commitment by Bruce and Suzanne Crocker established a named directorship for the Montana Museum of Art and Culture.
“Campaign Montana” additionally infused necessary support into the University's academic programs.
In 2015, Alexander and Andrea Blewett made a transformative $10 million gift to the School of Law, supporting law school students, faculty, programs and operations.
Support for health-focused programs extended the reach of UM’s Neural Injury Center in serving veterans and allowed the University to broaden neuroscience education across disciplines. Gifts also advanced UM’s College of Health’s mission to train practitioners for rural Montana communities.
Donors also recognized the power of the University to reach beyond the boundaries of campus, to serve the state in meaningful ways and improve the lives of its citizens.
At the Flathead Lake Biological Station, donor funding launched interdisciplinary internships, engaged K–12 students in hands-on science, and enhanced water quality monitoring and early detection of aquatic invasive species.
A gift from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation to the Montana Digital Academy launched EdReady Montana, an online program that continues to deliver improved college readiness for thousands of students statewide at no cost to the individual learner. The Washington Foundation provides support for the program to this day.
A gift of nearly $2 million from the estate of Richard Lee Merritt established an endowment for the Archives and Special Collections at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, the largest ever to the library.
Forward-Focused Facilities Upgrades
“Campaign Montana” enabled the University to renovate and construct spaces that elevated learning across campus. These investments created, updated or expanded modern, student-focused spaces that foster academic excellence, research and community engagement.
The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation and the Alice Lee Lund Charitable Trust made $10 million and $5 million gifts, respectively, joining other donors to expand space for early childhood education, counseling and the Montana Digital Academy — as well as the addition of the state-of-the-art, 500-seat Ali Lund Instructional (ALI) Auditorium — in the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education.
In Grizzly Athletics, a $7 million contribution from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation on behalf of Kevin and Kyle Washington supported the creation of the Washington-Grizzly Champions Center — a premier training and locker room facility. In 2015, the Eric and Blair Sprunk Student-Athlete Academic Center opened, offering support to the school’s 300-plus student athletes.
In 2016, the Harold and Priscilla Gilkey Building, funded through gifts from Harold and Priscilla Gilkey and more than 120 other donors, opened. Today, it provides a vibrant Welcome Center for prospective students and their families.
Giving from Dennis and Gretchen Eck helped renovate UM’s 1950s-era Liberal Arts Building, adding new infrastructure, technology and furnishings. In recognition of their nearly $11 million in support for upgrades to the most frequented building on UM’s flagship campus, the building was renamed the Dennis and Gretchen Eck Liberal Arts Building in 2022.
A Decade of Togetherness
During the 2010s, the generosity of thousands of donors enabled UM to deepen access, excellence, equity and service for students. From the landmark Payne Family Native American Center to the far-reaching outcomes of “Campaign Montana,” private support helped shape a more innovative and student-focused future for UM.
To learn more about the Foundation’s 75th anniversary and read feature stories spanning the decades, please visit SupportUM.org/UMF-75.
The information on this website was compiled from a variety of sources, including records held by the UM Foundation and the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections. The UM Foundation has made its best efforts to provide an accurate representation of events, people, entities, names, activities and data. However, the information presented should not be considered a definitive historical record.