The Campaign for Academic Enrichment has raised $1.1 billion, 79 percent of its $1.4 billion goal. Development officials also boosted the fundraising goal for the Brown Annual Fund to $35 million this year, up from $31 million last year.
The seven-year campaign runs through the end of 2010, and University officials expect to reach the campaign fundraising goal before then, according to Neil Steinberg '75, vice president for development and campaign director. "Obviously if we've reached 1.1 (billion) already, we expect to exceed the goal," Steinberg said.
The campaign, which publicly launched in October 2005 after a two-year quiet phase, is intended to raise money for all aspects of the University, including the endowment, facilities and current programs.
The success of last year's Annual Fund - which exceeded its $31 million goal by raising $34.6 million - encouraged University officials to raise their goal even higher this year. The Annual Fund also saw an increase in alumni participation, catapulting Brown from 10th to seventh in the U.S. News and World Report ranking of alumni participation, according to a University press release. Administrators hope to raise $35 million from 35,000 donors this year.
"We have a history of exceeding goals," Steinberg said. "The higher we go, growth gets more challenging," he added. But, he said, "I'm confident we can hit it."
The University hopes to set another record by getting over 70 percent donor participation for the senior class gift. "It sends a good message to the donor base" when many seniors donate, Steinberg said.
Recent gifts to the University include five "Chancellor's Professorships," endowed by new University Chancellor Thomas Tisch '76 and his wife Alice Tisch. The professorships will be awarded to faculty in any discipline. The gift also included a flexible fund that can be used to further the goals of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.
At its recent October meeting, the Corporation, the University's highest governing body, also formally accepted a $5-million gift for theatre arts and the Brown Annual Fund, $2.5 million for the Creative Arts Building, $2 million to establish a scholarship fund, a gift of just over $1 million from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation for the Political Theory Project, $1 million from the parent of a 1983 alum to support, among other uses, the general plant fund and $250,000 from an anonymous donor for the Fund for the Children of Providence, a fund established by the University in response to the recommendations of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.
Last May the Corporation approved planning for a new swim center to replace the structurally deficient Smith Swim Center. Development officials are currently fundraising for the new pool, though Steinberg said it is too early to tell how that effort is going. The Corporation recently approved a $1 million gift for the new swim center.
The Corporation also recently approved the beginning of a renovation project of campus residence halls. The administration will "analyze the costs and benefits of new housing," according to a University press release, but fundraising has not started for that project yet. "It's on the list," Steinberg said, referring to projects a donor can fund.
The campaign's success represents "a vote of confidence in the direction the University is going, the Plan for Academic Enrichment and the leadership of the University," Steinberg said.
