The Advancement Committee of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors learned on February 29 that a major fundraising milestone had been met since the last meeting in December.
“We’re humbled to say that the last time we were together, we were about $35 million away from hitting the $5 billion goal for the campaign and thankfully due to so many, that happened before the end of the year,” said Mark Luellen, the vice president of advancement at the University of Virginia.
The campaign is called Honor the Future and there is still about a year and a half left until it ends.
“It’s been really heartwarming and humbling to see that things didn’t stop when we hit $5B,” Luellen said. “Not only did we hit $5B, but as of yesterday we crossed $5.1 billion in total commitments to the campaign.”
Luellen said since the beginning of the fiscal year, UVA has raised over $450 million, up 23 percent from the year before. Part of that is that the number of large contributions has increased.
“We’re now I think at about 73 gifts of $1 million or more since July 1 and that’s up 40 percent year over year,” Luellen said.
Peter Grant is the chair of the Honor the Future campaign and he said over 200,000 people have contributed to the effort. He also told the Advancement Committee that at least some alumni have paused donations due to disagreements of political conversations that have happened at UVA in a time of polarization.
“On the other hand I think we’ve retained the support of a great many more people who believe that this University can stand as a leader for the ideal of a marketplace of ideas, freedom of expression, open discourse, and many of them ask in the conversations we have, if that can’t happen at the University of Virginia, where can it happen?” Grant said.
Grant also took the opportunity to point out major contributions that have resulted in new buildings and infrastructure such as the School of Data Science, a new performing arts center, and the Karsh Institute for Democracy.
“All three of which will be anchor tenants in the Emmet-Ivy Corridor, which is yet another symbol and signal of the growth of where we’re headed,” Grant said.
Grant said these new buildings and others such as the future Institute of Biotechnology at Fontaine Research Park demonstrate to alumni the importance of their donations.
For more information, visit the UVA Giving website.
At the end of the Advancement Committee’s meeting, President Jim Ryan had an announcement of two new large donations.
“A new $25 million gift from the Harrison Foundation will name the Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center and a $30 million gift from the Harrison Foundation and the Mary Anderson Harrison Foundation will create the Harrison Family Research Center, a new translational research center and Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases in the Manning Institute of Biotechnology,” Ryan said.
Ground was broken for the biotechnology institute in December.
For more on the gift, check out the relevant article on UVA Today.
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