The ISU Foundation reported on Thursday a 30 percent increase in its receipts for the 2004-05 fiscal year. This increase comes despite the end of a three-year legal battle over the classification of Foundation records as public information.

Until mid-June, a legal dispute between open-records advocates and the Foundation appeared to attract most of the attention. As of June, the parties were continuing negotiation.

Both parties in the lawsuit say the open-records controversy has not affected the Foundation’s results. More than 1,800 more people gave to the university this year compared with 2003-04, setting an annual record of more than 55,000 donors.

For its fiscal year, which ended July 31, the Foundation received $82.4 million in outright cash gifts and pledge receipts. Although no gifts were classified by the Foundation as being greater than $10 million, the Foundation received nine gifts between $1 million and $10 million.

The Foundation’s privacy policy requires donors’ approval before releasing their names to the public.

Jason Menke, the Foundation’s associate director of communications, said he was pleased with the results, crediting the upswing to $10 million of gifts collected for a sustainable agriculture program.

He said he did not believe the increase in donations was related to the lawsuit.

“The ruling came seven months into our fiscal year,” said Menke. “I don’t think the issue with the donors is about the Foundation, but about the university. They’re confident in Iowa State and where it’s headed, and that’s the issue.”

Some donors chose to take advantage of the offer of anonymity provided by the Foundation’s March 2005 privacy policy. Menke said the number was “not significant.”

“There is a very small number of donors — less than 1 percent — requesting confidentiality, but it’s not a huge increase,” he said. “We’d much rather share their information and their gifts’ impact with Iowa State.”

Menke said there were no outstanding open-records requests from either Des Moines businessman Arlen Nichols or former ISU employee Mark Gannon.

Ramona Lee, Marie Powers’ niece, said she was pleased Foundation receipts increased this year.

“The results show that the threat of open records, and the fact that records were opened, did not turn away donations like [Mark Gannon and I] originally thought,” Lee said.

Lee said she was pleased with the impact of the open-records lawsuit on the Foundation’s policies and on its results.

“The future should be bright, because after this case, people have seen that their money will be properly accounted for,” she said.