Campaign Highlights
View from Rockefeller Chapel
The University of Chicago’s most ambitious fund-raising effort to date, the Chicago Initiative raised $2.38 billion—well above its $2 billion goal. During the Initiative, annual fund-raising averaged $248.8 million, with most gifts coming from individuals.
In each of its last three campaigns, the University doubled annual fund-raising—$65 million in the 1982–85 Campaign for the Arts and Sciences, $107 million in the 1991–96 Campaign for the Next Century, and an average of $248.8 million in the Initiative. As a result, Chicago climbed from 33rd in cash fund-raising among U.S. universities to a place among the top 20, ranking 12th in 2007. The University’s endowment doubled from June 30, 2002, when it totaled $3.26 billion, to June 30, 2008, when it reached $6.63 billion. Of that amount, almost $1 billion represented gifts during the Initiative and growth on those gifts.
Continuing Momentum
Sources of Gifts and Contributions
Distribution of Gifts to the Chicago Initiative
From the University of Chicago Magazine, July–August 2008
While the 1991–96 campaign had five donors of $10 million or more, the Initiative received eight times that number, including Chicago’s first $100 million commitment. More than 117,000 individuals and organizations made gifts, a 22 percent increase over the last campaign. The number of alumni participating in the campaign rose by 8 percent, with 64,000 alumni contributing. The increased support—contributions of time, money, or both—generated by the Initiative created a new level of institutional confidence and momentum, strengthening engagement and commitment among the 300,000 members of Chicago’s global community.
Ambitious Agenda
In March 2008, the University embarked on an even more ambitious effort: a focused set of strategic initiatives designed to enhance its intellectual and cultural capital and the eminence, distinctiveness, and benefit of its education and research programs. The proof of the Initiative’s success can be found in Chicago’s continuing focus on producing knowledge to enrich the quality of human life. That quest, Initiative Chair Andrew M. Alper told his fellow Trustees in March, will offer new challenges and new opportunities “for individuals, families, and organizations to partner with the University in achieving something that neither could accomplish without the other.”
As the books closed on the Initiative, Board of Trustees Chair James S. Crown judged its success in terms of Chicago’s long-term future: “There is no finish line here if we’re going to keep being the University of Chicago. We should take a pause, we should celebrate, and then we should take a look at the next opportunities and keep going forward.”