Shawn L. Scoville

President and CEO

Shawn L. Scoville has been with the Oregon State University Foundation since 2005, serving as its president and CEO since January 2020. Under his leadership, the OSU Foundation aspires to be one of the best university advancement teams in the country, excelling in its mission to engage the Oregon State University community, inspire investment in the university and steward donor and volunteer resources. With the support of a 30-member Board of Trustees, the OSU Foundation has seen the market value of its endowment triple during Mr. Scoville’s tenure, and the last three years have been the best fundraising years in the university’s history. Average retention among OSU Foundation fundraisers is an industry-leading eight years.

In October 2022, the OSU Foundation, in partnership with the university, launched the $1.75 billion Believe It campaign, the second campaign in the university’s history, and the first to include engagement objectives. The campaign includes an ambitious $500 million goal for student success programs and scholarships. The campaign gained early momentum through several significant facility projects with donors committing $225 million in support of the completion of Reser Stadium, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts and the Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex. The campaign total to date includes four gifts of $50 million each, the four largest gifts in the university’s history. Mr. Scoville led the effort to create a new strategic plan for the OSU Foundation, developed in alignment with the university’s most recent strategic plan and guided by the OSU Foundation’s Senior Leadership Team, to energize the remaining years of the Believe It campaign and ensure the greatest possible impact on the university’s goals.

Mr. Scoville previously served as the Foundation’s executive vice president and as the principal architect of The Campaign for OSU, which closed in 2014 having raised more than $1.14 billion from 106,000 donors. OSU was one of only two public universities in the nation to have a first campaign with a $1 billion goal, and one of only 35 public universities at the time to have crossed the billion-dollar mark in a fundraising campaign. In 2023, he presided over activities to celebrate the Foundation’s 75th anniversary, which included recognizing a history of strong volunteer leadership and crossing the $3 billion mark in cumulative philanthropic giving, more than $2 billion of which was given during his tenure. At the same time, the Foundation celebrated the 500th donor to cross the $1 million milestone in their cumulative giving to OSU, a group that has quadrupled in size since Mr. Scoville’s arrival.

Before joining OSU, Mr. Scoville worked for 16 years at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., including as associate vice president leading the fundraising efforts for the main campus during Georgetown’s seven‐year $1 billion Third Century Campaign. Donors gave more than $700 million of the campaign total to units under Mr. Scoville’s direction, in large part due to his sustained and distinctive focus on principal, leadership and major gifts, a strategy he continues to employ successfully at OSU.

Over the years, Mr. Scoville has held several volunteer positions in our leading professional organization, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including speaking at and leading conferences, serving on committees and fostering a culture of CASE volunteerism among OSU Foundation colleagues. In 2024, he was recognized by CASE District VIII with the Distinguished Service Award. He also actively participates in the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) and Huron | GG+A Global Philanthropy’s Advancement Leadership Forum (ALF). A native of Upstate New York, he is a graduate of Gettysburg (Pa.) College.