SLIPPERY ROCK — The 2013-2014 fiscal year was a big one for the Slippery Rock University Foundation.

Ed Bucha, executive director, said the foundation received $3.2 million in donations. For the 2012-2013 fiscal year, it received $2.4 million.

“Giving wise, it was great,” Bucha said. “It was a pretty big jump for us.”

SRU’s 125th anniversary, which is being celebrated this year, helped bring in additional donations. Bucha said a gala held at the end of May helped tremendously.

“It was a reason to get out and talk to people,” Bucha said.

The anniversary is giving the foundation an excuse to reach out more and make additional contacts.

“We try to do as much as we can,” Bucha said.

The foundation ended the fiscal year with a $23 million investment portfolio and $27.5 million in total net assets, both of which are records, Bucha said.

In April, SRU received its largest donation in its history, a $735,000 gift from Jeanne Powell Furrie, a 1945 SRU graduate who died in 2013.

SRU recently received a $250,000 grant from the R.K. Mellon Foundation for its adapted physical activity program, which focuses on physical activity and nutrition for those with disabilities.

Bucha said the foundation has a few proposals out now for different grants.

The foundation also is working on additional development at Slippery Rock Technology Park.

Currently, the only operation up and running in the park is a $5.3-million, 27,000-square-foot Butler Health System medical center, which opened in 2011 and added an urgent care facility in 2012.

Bucha said the foundation is in talks with two developers who want to set up shop at the park. He said he could not identify the two developers.

The foundation began looking at the land, located off Route 108, in the mid-1990s. The owners sold the land for $400,000 in the mid-2000s.

The foundation also owns the residence halls on campus while SRU maintains them. Bucha said the residence halls are at more than 100 percent capacity. He noted that some dorm rooms are built so that they can fit three students rather than two.

Last year, the foundation did $2.5 million in upgrades to the residence halls, upgrading broadband capabilities and equipping all of the dorm rooms with Wi-Fi. Bucha said this was necessary because technology use by students is increasing.