Mark Lefebvre, senior vice president for principal gifts at the UW Foundation, has been a champion of UW people, programs and projects for almost 30 years. He’ll depart the foundation this month. “It was here I found great animating ideas,” Lefebvre said of UW-Madison. “It was here that I found the best expression of the Wisconsin Idea.”
As he leaves the Foundation, his fundraising legacy includes leading the HealthStar campaign that built Rennebohm Hall and the Health Sciences Learning Center, securing the Blue Cross & Blue Shield gift that endowed The Wisconsin Partnership Fund and playing a pivotal role in the Create the Future campaign.
University of Wisconsin Regent David Walsh called Lefebvre a “wonderful advocate” who has raised many millions of dollars for the university. “Credibility and passion define his career,” Walsh added. Steven F. Skolaski, president of the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, credited LeFebvre with an ability to marry a donor’s desire to do good with the university’s ability to do so. “(Former Foundation President) Bob Rennebohm recognized Mark as an individual who had worked diligently with the university to reach goals that had only been dreamed of,” Skolaski said.
Lefebvre began as a volunteer for the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center and moved to the Foundation in 1994.
Lefebvre earned his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the UW-Madison, where the influence of professor Robert E. Gard and writer August Derleth pointed him toward a career in publishing. During his 20 years as president and chief executive officer of Stanton & Lee Publishers, he edited and published more than 100 books.
“Believe,” Lefebvre wrote in a farewell note to Foundation colleagues. “Anything is possible. More often than not, we prove it.”