Annual Report 2026

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Introducing Sean Campbell ’94 President/CEO

I join the University of Maine Foundation with a deep sense of optimism and gratitude. UMaine changed everything for my family when my father became the first to earn a college degree—a master’s degree, too. My sister, cousins, and I followed suit, and my nephew and niece are currently enrolled. Returning to serve an institution that has served my family for three generations is an honor.

To our endowment donors: Thank you! Your generosity is a powerful expression of confidence in the university and in generations of students and faculty to come. Endowed gifts are especially meaningful—their impact compounds over time, creating opportunity year after year.

The Foundation is in a position of remarkable strength and momentum. Record endowment levels, strong investment performance, and nearly 70 new endowed funds in FY26 reflect extraordinary donor commitment.

Over the coming weeks and months, I look forward to meeting you, hearing what inspires your philanthropy, and working together to ensure the University of Maine remains an opportunity engine for the people of Maine and beyond.

FY26 record-high endowment total

This fiscal year brought a record-high endowment total of $680 million for the University of Maine. The portion held at the Foundation represents 76% or $516 million of the total.

The Foundation’s portfolio returned 18.3% for the fiscal year. We received media attention for this growth in recent news stories about New England colleges and universities that out-paced some of the private institutions in endowment performance.

FY26 support transferred to UMaine from the investments was $8.9 million, a $680 thousand increase over the prior year (FY25). Adding to the good news and because of the returns, our board voted to increase the spending policy distribution rate from 3.25% to 3.75% for FY27. The increased spending and newly invested endowed funds will combine for a record $11.9 million in FY27 support to the University.

Building on this success, we are pleased to welcome Sean Campbell ’94 as the new president and CEO of the University of Maine Foundation. Sean exhibits a wealth of energy, experience and knowledge he has gained at many outstanding institutions since graduating from Maine roughly three decades ago.

With Sean’s arrival, solid annual giving, record-high endowment totals and loyal, committed donors, the Foundation is aligned to continue to serve students, faculty and staff at the University of Maine at the highest levels.

Thank you for everything you do for the University of Maine and the University of Maine Foundation.

A message from UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy

This past year was one of remarkable progress and momentum. In May, we welcomed more than 2,700 new alumni into the Black Bear family. These graduates will go on to become the next generation of engaged volunteers, advocates, and philanthropists whose continued involvement with our UMaine community will strengthen the university for years to come.

UMaine continues to achieve at the highest levels. We are proud to now have three faculty members in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in U.S. research. Our graduate engineering programs are ranked among the top 100 in the nation, and across campus, there is a growing sense of confidence, ambition, and opportunity.

That momentum is visible in the investments being made in our future. The GEM Factory of the Future, Aquaculture Research Center, and Morse Arena join a university transformed by modern facilities that support student success, groundbreaking research, and partnerships that strengthen Maine’s economy.

I look forward to working closely with Sean Campbell, the newly appointed President and CEO of the University of Maine Foundation. Together, we will continue to advance UMaine’s strategic vision, including investment in new, creative programs and research innovations developed by our talented faculty, staff, and students. Our Strategic Re-Envisioning also includes the renovation of Boardman Hall—made possible by a lead gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation through the UMS TRANSFORMS initiative—and the development of a new Health and Life Sciences Complex.

Thank you for your continued loyalty, generosity, and partnership. Your support helps ensure that the University of Maine, our learner-centered R1, remains a place where students become leaders.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy
President, University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias
Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, University of Maine System

New Endowed Funds in FY26

Inspiring words from an engaged alumnus

On May 15, 2026 Louise and Ray Jean ’64 were honored with a Stillwater Award at the Stillwater Society Dinner. Ray’s remarks exemplify our theme of Engage, Empower and Inspire.

“My presence here in the Wells Conference Center for this event conjures up, in a figurative sense, the phrase, “what goes around, comes around”. My freshman year I was housed in Dunn Hall, steps away from where we are this evening! I should say up front: This University trained me to be an engineer, not an orator. We engineers tend to do our best work in writing, preferably with diagrams and formulas. So if my remarks tonight occasionally sound like a technical memo with feelings, you will know exactly which college issued my diploma. To be recognized by the University of Maine, the institution that gave me my foundation, that shaped the way I think, and that sent me out into an industrial world I could barely imagine, is a great honor for me. I graduated in 1965 with an engineering degree, and I have never stopped being a Black Bear.

The World of 1965

Let me take you back to the world I stepped into 60 years ago. There were no personal computers, no internet, no cell phones, no GPS. If you needed to make a calculation, you would use the slide rule. And I was pretty good with one. Of course, in wanting to be cool, I never wore mine on my hip. If you needed information, real verified information, you went to the library. I spent more
hours in the university library than I can count. It was the infrastructure of knowledge itself, the place where curiosity became competence, where a question became an answer, where an engineering student from Lewiston could reach out and touch the accumulated thinking of the world.

From the Library to Artificial Intelligence

The most powerful computers in 1965 filled an entire room and were available only to governments and the largest corporations. The moon landing, just four years after I graduated, was navigated by a computer with less processing power than the watch on your wrist today. And now a student in a dorm room in Orono, one in Dunn Hall, can ask any question and receive in seconds a synthesized answer drawn from more knowledge than any library has ever held. Artificial intelligence (AI) does not merely retrieve information. AI reasons with it. It connects threads across disciplines. It drafts, analyzes, critiques, and creates. The library was the greatest equalizer of my generation. AI may be the greatest equalizer of this generation. And here’s what strikes me most. The skill that made a student effective in the library is the same skill that makes a student effective with AI. You had to know what questions to ask. You had to evaluate what you found. You had to know the difference between insight and noise. That capacity for rigorous, independent, disciplined thinking is not made obsolete by AI. It is made more valuable. That is what a great engineering education gives you. And that is why institutions like this one matter more than ever.

The Career Journey

I spent the decades after graduation making my way up through the corporate world, from engineer to manager to executive, and ultimately to chief executive officer, twice, at two publicly traded companies. Both industries were being transformed by the very technologies I had spent my career learning to harness. At every inflection point, I came back to the same foundation: the problem- solving mindset that a Maine engineering education gave me. It was my compass when everything else was shifting under my feet. The executives I watched struggle, and I watched many, were not the ones who lacked technical knowledge. The ones who struggled were those who could not adapt, who could not step back, reassess, and chart a new course. That capacity for disciplined adaptation and continuous improvement is what I learned here. And it is what I believe a great university education
must provide above all else.

The Scholarship

Which brings us to why we are here today. The scholarship we have established is for students from the Lewiston and Auburn area—students who may be the first in their families to pursue a university degree, who face real financial barriers, and who carry the same hunger I carried when I arrived on this campus 65 years ago. I know that community. I know what it produces.

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And I know that inside it are young people of exceptional talent who need only one thing: the opportunity. An endowment is not a gift that gets spent once. It is a gift that is given every year in perpetuity. The students who benefit from the scholarship 5, 10, 30 years from now, I will never know them, but they will stand on something we built together. And that to me is the whole point.

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Acknowledging My Wife

I cannot stand here and accept this recognition without saying something about the person without whom none of this would have been possible. My wife Louise has
been at my side across every season of this story. Through the many relocations—she used to call them adventures—the long nights, and the hard decisions, through two CEO tenures and everything that comes with them. She has been my partner, my counsel, my steadfast supporter, and my unwavering champion. She has also been at the heart of
this philanthropic commitment. The values that shape this gift, the belief in education, community, and giving back, are not mine alone. They are ours. And this recognition belongs to her every bit as much as it belongs to me.

In Closing

Let me close with this. I was 18 when I first arrived on this campus—full of ambition, and I suspect with far more confidence than I had earned. I did not know what the world would ask of me—or what technical revolutions from the mainframe to the microchip to artificial intelligence—I would have to navigate. But I knew even then that I was somewhere important, that the University of Maine was giving me not just knowledge, but a way of moving around the world.

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That gift of an education has compounded every single year since 1965. And like any good investment, the longer you hold it, the more it is worth. I’m grateful beyond words, and I’m committed— for as long as I am able— to make sure that the next generation of students who walk onto this campus feels exactly what I felt: that they are somewhere extraordinary and that everything is possible. Thank you.”

Statement of Financial Position

Statement of Activities

As of June 30, 2026
Endowment Funds FY26

University of Maine Foundation	$516,089,895
University of Maine System (Orono campus)	117,727,501
University of Maine System (Machias campus)	4,281,833
University of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation*	37,784,237
Maine 4-H Foundation	4,637,402
Total	$680,520,868

*Pulp and Paper Foundation fund values as of December 31, 2025.
To view the full list of endowed funds, visit FY26 All UMaine Endowment Totals

Ways to Give

Cash/Credit Card/ACH
Payroll Deduction
Bequests*
Appreciated Securities
Real/Tangible Personal Property
Life Insurance
Retirement Plans
Charitable Trusts
Charitable Gift Annuity
Donor-Advised Funds
Employer Matching Gifts
Recurring Gifts
Honorary/Memorial Giving
Pledges
Gifts In-Kind
Corporate Partnerships

Make a gift online: umaine.edu/give

More details on ways to give: umainefoundation.org/typesofgifts

Giving Societies

The type of gift that is best for you depends on many factors, including your age, health, family and employment situation, assets, and lifestyle choices. Many companies will match your gift, maximizing the impact of your personal philanthropy. Charitable giving often carries significant tax benefits for donors. All gifts to the

University of Maine Foundation for UMaine and its fundraising partners are tax- deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you have questions regarding the tax implications of your giving, consult your attorney or financial advisor.

More information on giving societies: umainefoundation.org/giving-societies/

FY26 Board of Directors

More information on our Board of Directors and Ex-Officio Members: umainefoundation.org/boardofdirectors

Philanthropy Staff

Sean Campbell ’94
President/CEO
sean@maine.edu

Orono Office

Portland Office

View all staff at: umainefoundation.org/staff