UNC-Chapel Hill surpasses $5 billion in fundraising, one month before campaign ends
With a little more than one month left in its yearslong “Campaign for Carolina” fundraising initiative, UNC-Chapel Hill has raised more than $5 billion and set a record for the amount of money raised in a single fiscal year, the university announced Saturday.
The milestone makes UNC the first university, public or private, in the South to raise $5 billion in a single campaign. UNC joins five other public universities, and becomes one of 16 universities total, in the country in reaching that amount.
The university described the milestone in a news release as one of “the most successful efforts ever in higher education.”
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the university said in the release, campaign supporters donated more than $798 million, marking a new high for funds raised in one year.
“I am immensely grateful for the community of donors and volunteers who have supported us on this journey,” UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said in the release. “Their generosity represents a strong affirmation of our mission of teaching, research and service. Reaching this milestone ensures that Carolina will continue to prepare generations of students and scholars to solve the grand challenges of our time.”
Campaign previously reached $4.25 billion goal
The Campaign for Carolina, a “comprehensive” fundraising campaign that launched publicly in October 2017, had an original goal of raising $4.25 billion to support “support students, initiatives, and the research and scholarship of faculty” at the university.
The university reached that amount in January, about one year ahead of the campaign’s scheduled end date of Dec. 31, 2022.
Many donations to the campaign “are already at work supporting Carolina’s key strategic priorities,” the campaign website reads, while others will be paid out over time or through “deferred giving vehicles.”
Since reaching the campaign’s original goal, fundraising efforts have largely focused on student scholarships and fellowships, with a goal to raise $1 billion in that area. The university said Saturday that the campaign has raised $990 million toward that initiative.
The campaign’s website also identifies “bolstering diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives” at the university as a priority of the campaign since meeting the original $4.25 billion goal.
“Fundraising will continue in the final weeks of 2022” to meet those goals and others, the university’s announcement said.
“Even as we celebrate the accomplishments of our donors, we continue to work hard to reach important campaign goals in the time we have left,” Vice Chancellor for Development David Routh said in the university’s announcement. “Scholarships and fellowships are key to attracting the brightest students and keeping Carolina accessible and affordable.”
Routh, who has led the Campaign for Carolina and has overseen the university’s development office and fundraising efforts for nearly a decade, announced in April that he would step down from his position in December, when the campaign is slated to end.
More than 215,000 have donated so far
In total, more than 215,000 supporters have donated to the campaign since it began. The median donation is $50, with 74 donors giving $10 million or more, and 721 donors giving $1 million or more, the university said in the news release.
“We have arrived at this extraordinary moment because of our donors,” Routh said in the release. “Carolina is truly fortunate to have such broad support from people who find ways to give and to help others. Our University has a stronger future because of them.”
Some of the high profile donations since the campaign began include two $10 million gifts from the John William Pope Foundation and alumni Bill and Anne Harrison in 2018, the Hussman family’s $25 million gift to the UNC-CH journalism school in 2019 and a $25 million gift to the Kenan-Flagler Business School from UNC alumnus Steven Bell and his wife, Jackie Bell, in 2020, The News & Observer previously reported.
The university keeps the terms of donor contracts private, The N&O has reported.
According to an annual report from the UNC Office of University Development, private grants and investment income made up 17.4% of UNC’s revenue in the 2020 fiscal year, The N&O reported, while appropriations from the state accounted for 16.6%.
“Along with public funding from the state of North Carolina, gifts from people and institutions are the lifeblood of Carolina,” the university’s announcement said.
Other recent fundraising campaigns at Triangle universities include one at Duke University that concluded in 2017 with $3.85 billion raised, and N.C. State’s five-year “Think and Do the Extraordinary” campaign that raised more than $2.1 billion before ending in 2021.
