Central Michigan University has received $579,990 from sales of custom license plates in less than a decade.

Michigan’s University Fundraising License Program gives a portion of license plate sales back to the universities represented on the plates, which feature the university logo alongside the plate number.

The sale of plates has raised approximately $10.6 million for 15 universities across the state of Michigan since 2000, said Kelly Chesney, Secretary of State spokeswoman.

“The initial cost of a college license plate is $35,” she said. “So the year that the plate is purchased, $25 goes towards the school that the plate represents. Each year after that, the person who owns the plate pays their registration fee plus $10 and those $10 goes toward the fundraising program.”

As of June 30, there were 9.6 million college license plates in circulation and 43,745 of which are CMU license plates, Chesney said.

“Every year, the sales increase with the number of students who graduate and the number of students who enroll in school at CMU,” she said.

Money to alumni

The CMU license plate is the fourth most popular license plate, following Michigan State, the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University.

“The money that CMU receives goes toward the Alumni association,” said Mary Lu Yardley, executive director of Alumni Relations. “The money that we receive goes toward operations of the alumni. This includes publishing Centralight, a quarterly magazine that is sent out to 30,000 alumni every four months.”

The University Fundraising License Program was initiated by former Secretary of State Candice Miller in 2000. The plates became available for the public to purchase in September of that year.

The plates can be ordered at any time, but are most often ordered when the license plate registrations are up.

Chesney said the personalized plates can be ordered online, and citizens can check how the plate will look and its availability.

E-mail the author: Calyn Sharp