UC San Diego Fundraising Campaign on Track to raise $2B over 10 years

$2 billion in ten years — that’s been UC San Diego’s campaign goal for raising money over the last five years. So far, the university is on track. By June 30^th, the school will have raised a record of $200 million in private donations during the last fiscal year.

Chancellor Pradeep Khosla told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “We thought it would be about $190 million, but we’ll make it to $200 million,” he said. “We’ve raised $1 billion during our capital campaign, and will raise another $1 billion.”

This is the first significant fundraising drive put on by the University since 2007 when the school raised more than $1 billion over seven years.

The $2 billion campaign is focused on raising money for everything from student scholarships to research and new buildings. Up until this point, all the fundraising efforts have been private and “quiet,” the goal being to build momentum for the public focus, which will start next spring or summer.

Despite problems raising donations from its more than 165,000 alumni, and the unexpected departure of Steve Gamer, the university’s fundraising chief, the school is on target with its goals.

A good portion of the money from this past fiscal year went toward UC San Diego’s $1 billion in sponsored research grants that helps the school maintain its status as one of the ten largest research universities in the country.

In fact, UC San Diego ranks #5 in the nation for annual federal research and development spending.

While the fundraising campaign efforts by UC San Diego appear extensive, they’re actually rather small compared to other schools in California. UCLA is currently in the middle of a $4.2 billion campaign, and the University of Southern California is attempting to raise $6 billion.

The MBA program at the Rady School of Management will no doubt be affected by the fundraising campaign. As one of the top programs in the country, it already stands out in the crowd, but additional funding will help the program rise even higher.

regions: San Diego

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