President-designate William “Brit” Kirwan accepted a $5 million donation for Ohio State from the Longaberger Foundation Thursday. The donation is part of OSU’s five-year $850 million “Affirm Thy Friendship” campaign. The campaign is in its third year and has raised over $690 million. The OSU Board of Trustees Chair Alex Shumate, and Longaberger Foundation officers Rachel, Tami, and Dave Longaberger attended the ceremony. “This commitment is recognition of the important role which the state’s flagship university plays in Ohio,” said foundation President Rachel Longaberger. “This partnership will enable us to join Ohio State in our mutual goal of enhancing the quality of life in the region and across the state.”Instead of a check, Rachel Longaberger presented Kirwan with a symbolic representation of the donation: a Longaberger basket bearing the OSU seal. “I’m so enormously proud to be part of this institution at a time when it gets this kind of support from the community,” Kirwan said. “The significance of this gift is not only it’s magnitude but also the focus of the gift.” The donation is targeted to OSU’s priorities of “research excellence, the undergraduate experience, diversity, and outreach,” said Kirwan.The donation attends to these priorities by being split up amongst several different areas of OSU development. The major contributions include $1.75 million to establish a chair in urology at the OSU Medical Center and support medical research, $2 million to support the proposed Longaberger Alumni House and $1 million to establish a first-year student institute through the Office of Student Affairs to enhance the ‘student experience’.”Ohio State University holds a very special place in my heart,” said Tami Longaberger. She is president of the Longaberger Company, secretary of the Longaberger foundation, member of the OSU Board of Trustees, and chair of the Student Affairs committee.”It is a privilege and an honor for our family to give a gift like this back to a place that means so much to me,” Longaberger said.The donation is the first in the history of the Newark, Ohio-based Longaberger Foundation. The foundation is made possible by the Longaberger Company, whose famous baskets earned revenues of about $611 million last year and boosted the company to the ranks of the Fortune 500.