The University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s bid to raise $1.5 billion in donations has ended successfully — and well ahead of schedule.
The ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Now campaign, launched publicly in 2014, reached its goal two years early with support from more than 100,000 donors, officials said.
The campaign’s success “ensures the UA’s place as a premier institution for cutting-edge research and academic achievement,†said John-Paul Roczniak, president and CEO of the UA Foundation, who was busy planning a celebration event after the news was announced Friday.
The donor money supports a wide range of projects and initiatives, including student scholarships, support for faculty and research, and upgrades to university programs and facilities.
UA President Ann Weaver Hart, in a news release Friday, said the campaign’s outcome shows “what is possible when the entire UA community — faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends from around the world — come together to help drive the future.â€
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UA fundraising boomed the first few years after Hart’s 2012 arrival, but slowed this year as some donors protested Hart’s decision to take a side job on the board of for-profit DeVry University. Despite the controversy, officials said fundraising topped $200 million in each of the last three school years.
The campaign total includes donations that date to 2010. The campaign began then in what officials described as a “quiet phase,†and raised around $860 million before the public announcement.
The donation that put the campaign over the top came from one of the UA’s fundraising trustees. Peter Salter, a retired health-care executive, and his wife, Nancy, gave $2.5 million to endow the Center for Management Innovations in Healthcare at the Eller College of Management.
The impact of other major donations stretches across campus. They include:
• A gift of more than $50 million that created the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.
• A $20 million gift from the family of renowned horn player Fred Fox that renamed the UA’s School of Music in his honor.
• A $20 million donation from Richard F. Caris that secured the UA’s role in building the Giant Magellan telescope.
• A $5 million addition to McClelland Hall funded by a lead gift from Karl and Stevie Eller.
Not all donations were so large, of course. Donations ranged from $15 to $50 million, officials said.
