SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Missouri State University announced its “Onward Upward” fundraising campaign. The goal? $250 million.

Brent Dunn, MSU Foundation Executive Director said this will be the fourth campaign the university’s ever had and the largest in the university’s history.

The announcement is nearly three years in the making.

“We’ve been working on this, what we call the silent phase, the past few years,” Dunn said. “We’re to the point now that by summer we realized that we’re at a point where we need to go public.”

In the silent phase, 50,000 donors helped raise $150 million.

“$100 million to go is usually the hardest part of the campaign, so today we’re here to make it known that there is a great agenda for the institution,” Dunn said.

The $250 million goal will support scholarships, faculty, programs and buildings.

“Scholarships are a key thing, but the other things are important too,” Dunn said. “Faculty support, to hire and retain the brightest faculty, program support, to make the programs better, and then in order to build buildings and to expand buildings and to renovate buildings like Glass Hall, we have to have private support there.”

Missouri state alum and actor John Goodman is leading the campaign.

“I got so much from this school, I got a livelihood here, lifelong friends,” Goodman said. “If it helps out one kid, I’d be happy but I think we can do a lot more than that.”

Goodman says it’s important to him to see his alma mater grow.

“When I got here in 1971, it was Southwest Missouri State College,” Goodman said. “It might’ve been a teacher’s college I don’t know but it’s just amazing the way it’s grown.”

He hopes that people help the campaign any way they can.

“You’re helping tomorrow,” Goodman said. “You’re passing it on to kids, young adults. The better their education, the better off this country’s gonna be.”