Kansas University’s ongoing comprehensive fundraising campaign, Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, got a boost from a few different areas this month.

The campaign has been operating in its “silent phase,” and KU Endowment will announce the total amount of money raised so far at a campaign kickoff event, scheduled for April 28. The overall campaign goal, expected to be more than $1 billion, will also be announced then.

The KU Endowment Association unveiled a redesigned website, kuendowment.org, this month. It had been in the works for more than a year, said Rosita McCoy, KU Endowment’s vice president for communications and marketing.

The site has several new features and seeks to make the online donation process easier, McCoy said.

“By the time someone comes to our site, they don’t need to be shopping,” McCoy said. “We want to make it easy to get in and get out.”

The site also has space to highlight smaller donations, which are displayed on the main page by first name only. Recently, the site featured John, who donated $50 to the KU School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and Nathan, who donated $100 to KU’s crew team.

“We think it’s important to highlight these gifts because we want people to know every gift matters,” McCoy said.

Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment, said many smaller donations help out a great deal and come with fewer restrictions than a large gift from a single benefactor.

“We want to include as many people and engage as many people as possible” by highlighting smaller donations, Seuferling said. “Through a group effort, they can have an impact and will have an impact.”

New committees are meeting across campus, Seuferling said, identifying new opportunities for donors that include scholarships, endowed professorships and capital building projects.

Also, the university featured several photos, stories and press releases related to giving on its main website this month. McCoy said the effort was university-led. The university’s office of public affairs has incorporated centralized themes around its overall messaging, McCoy said. In November, the university decided to focus on donations and gifts to KU to align with the Thanksgiving holiday. Photos and video were included.

“Our alumni, KU and the public will be seeing more of that as we go forward,” Seuferling said.