The annual Order of the Knoll reception tonight will honor ISU donors and celebrate the completion of Campaign Destiny, Iowa State’s five-year fund-raising campaign.

The gala will begin with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by a dinner at 6 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum.

Phyllis Lepke, senior vice president of the ISU Foundation, said the Order of the Knoll recognizes alumni and friends of Iowa State who have contributed at least $15,000 to the university.

“It is the special event where they come to be thanked for their special contributions to Iowa State,” Lepke said.

Lepke said the event also will celebrate the end of Campaign Destiny, which began in 1995 and ended in June. The campaign began with a goal of raising $300 million but instead raised $458.6 million.

“I think our greatest hope is that we can appropriately thank our many alumni and friends who have given very generously during the campaign to support the university,” said Tom Mitchell, president of the ISU Foundation.

Lepke said Interim President Richard Seagrave will be thanking the Order of the Knoll members for their help, and four awards will be given to recognize individual members for their volunteer activities and their financial support during the reception. She said dinner and musical entertainment will follow, and they are expecting 650 people.

Lepke also said more students will be involved in the celebration this year as hosts, greeters and emcees.

“We’re trying to put more emphasis on the support that was provided for the students by Campaign Destiny,” she said. “It is our feeling that the real goal of Campaign Destiny is to provide the financial aid, the facilities and the programs that our students need to get a good education.”

Mitchell also said the campaign primarily benefits students.

“This campaign was focused on, `How can we help students?’ It’s all about students,” he said.

One example of this, Mitchell said, is the more than $100 million the campaign raised for undergraduate scholarships.

He said new endowed chairs and professorships were also created “so that students could have the best professors teaching them every day.”

Mitchell said the campaign also had a facilities component, so students would have access to the modern classrooms with the latest technology.

“We think that if they are taught by the brightest and the best faculty and have access to the latest technology, students will benefit in many ways,” Mitchell said.

“Mainly they will become responsible, productive citizens in society,” he said.

Lepke said the funds for the campaign were given in a variety of ways.

Some were given as cash, others as pledges to be given over a period of years.

Others as deferred gifts, where donors agree to leave a portion of their estate after they are gone.

“The generosity of Iowa State alumni and friends is truly extraordinary, and we think that speaks to the fact that Iowa State is becoming the best land-grant university in the country,” she said. “They want to make it the best university for its students and its faculty.”