Investing in Innovation: PLU launches the Opportunity Fund
By Britt Board
Assistant Director of Communication
The newly launched Opportunity Fund has a clear purpose: to turn PLU’s big ideas into reality through flexible, timely support.
The Opportunity Fund is a new fund that allows PLU to quickly invest in innovative programs, expand student support, and respond to emerging needs in a rapidly changing higher education landscape. While the Opportunity Fund is not an endowment, it is invested to support long-term growth while remaining fully flexible for immediate use.
“In this era of unprecedented change in higher education, PLU is not just reacting, we’re leading,” PLU President Allan Belton shares. “The Opportunity Fund is our strategic response, a vital catalyst that ensures PLU remains accessible, relevant, and impactful. This is our moment to create a new model of university growth and a PLU that thrives now and for generations into the future.”
With changing workforce demands, affordability pressures, and evolving student expectations, the Opportunity Fund is necessarily future-looking. By design, the fund allows resources to be deployed more quickly than traditional fundraising models typically allow, blending immediate access with long-term investment.
The Opportunity Fund is our strategic response, a vital catalyst that ensures PLU remains accessible, relevant, and impactful. This is our moment to create a new model of university growth and a PLU that thrives now and for generations into the future.
PLU has successfully raised ~$715,000 to date for the Opportunity Fund, and is actively pursuing an additional $2–3 million. A surprise $50,000 grant from the Ben B. Cheney Foundation has helped accelerate that momentum.
Staying true to its mission, this fund has already deployed its first round of pilot funding to meet the university’s most pressing needs. Three projects were approved and launched in fall 2025, each addressing a critical need facing the university today:
