The Brown Medical School Annual Fund raised the highest amount in its 39-year history during this fiscal year, reaching $808,000 in donations, according to John Perry, senior associate dean for biomedical advancement.
The amount raised reached 97 percent of the Alpert Medical School's fundraising goal, which was $830,000, Perry said.
Each year, a major portion of the fund is directed toward student financial aid, as scholarships are "really critical" for many medical students, Perry said.
The average student's debt is $140,000, and sometimes goes as high as $300,000, so "scholarships are very important," said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing.
This money also goes toward scholarly concentrations and the doctoring course, Perry said. "These are places in which Brown has been a leader in teaching," he said, adding that "Brown students are exposed to patient contact from the beginning."
In addition, funds go to "support the salaries and activities of professors," Wing said, as well as towards general operating costs. It is also important to use funds to continue to develop the curriculum, Perry said, as a way of adjusting to a changing world.
The amount of funds raised annually has been increasing steadily over the past few years, with the school raising $780,000 in the 2009 fiscal year, Perry said.
The number of contributing donors has also increased each year, excluding a dip in donor numbers in 2009, he said. During the economic downturn, the fund had fundraising difficulties due to financial uncertainty, Perry said, but they "raised more money, despite the fact that we had a drop-off in donors."
"The trend is that we are going back up in donors," he said, with 1,152 donors in 2009 and 1,229 donors in 2010. The Med School saw a 5 percent increase in alum donors last year and a 7 percent increase in medical alum donors exclusively, Perry said.
The "largest group of donors are alumni," Perry said, but contributions also come from leaders of the community, people from affiliated hospitals and local businesses. "We are approaching the banks in town," Wing said.
In addition, "medical parents have given a large weight," Perry said, with 10 percent of parents of medical students giving to the Med School. There has been "great support from parents of medical students past and present," Perry added.
The Med School staffs an advancement office devoted to "identifying people that may be interested in funding," Wing said. Finding donors also relies partly on word of mouth to "people that have made connections with Brown," he added. "Fundraising is a science," Wing said.
Another fundraising group consists of medical students, who had a dance last year to help raise funds for the new Med School building, Wing said, adding that through this they were able to raise $900. "The medical students did a great job," he said.
Fundraising intended specifically for the new building has been very significant. At present, the Med School has raised $26.75 million — about 60 percent — of the $45 million goal that is required to complete the project, Wing said.
The Med School received $1 million from the Champlin Foundation, a Rhode Island charity, toward the building of the Med School library, which will be named after the foundation as a result, he said.
"We are very excited about the naming opportunities in the building," Wing said. "People can name the whole anatomy suite" or just sections of it, he said. Certain parts of the Med School can be named for $2.5 million, he added, and Wing has already given money for a seminar room.
The Med School still needs to raise the final $20 million to reach its goal, but "students are going to be in the building in August of next year," Wing said.
This will be the "first medical school building in Rhode Island," he said, and it will "last for decades and decades and be a home for the future doctors of Rhode Island."
