The Centennial Campaign for UCLA Marks a Milestone

Campus UpdateFinancial Stability

Chancellor Block and Vice Chancellor Turteltaub sent the following message to the UCLA campus community.

A little more than four years ago, UCLA publicly launched what was the largest capital campaign goal ever undertaken by a public university: To raise $4.2 billion by the end of 2019, UCLA’s 100th anniversary year.

Today, we are very proud to report that UCLA surpassed that goal, 18 months ahead of schedule, thanks to more than 460,000 gifts from more than 188,000 donors, including strong philanthropic support from our faculty. But this milestone is not the end. Our campaign will continue through the end of next year to further enhance support for our campus and to meet key objectives, such as increasing the number of endowed chairs and bolstering funding for student scholarships and fellowships.

The support we have seen so far has been deeply inspiring and a testament to the significant and widespread confidence so many have in our students, staff, faculty and alumni to drive discovery, innovation, education and service, including state-of-the-art health care. This success has been led by our community all across campus — including deans, faculty, students and staff — under the shared goal of ensuring that UCLA enters its second century with a strong foundation and robust resources to accomplish our ambitious plans for the future.

In the past fiscal year alone, UCLA raised more than $880 million in private support, including $787 million in cash — a record for the campus. Much of this support came from our own community — alumni gave a record $233 million, up 48 percent from the previous year — and from more than 16,000 first-time donors. Excitement for our centennial celebration, which begins in the spring, is clearly building.

While a number of large gifts helped us reach this goal — a record-breaking 109 gifts came in at more than $1 million this past fiscal year — each and every gift made a difference. In fact, nearly 95 percent of all gifts during the Centennial Campaign have been less than $10,000.

We would like to extend our deep appreciation to our campaign chairs, Tony Pritzker and Garen Staglin, for their leadership and philanthropy. In addition, we thank our Campaign Executive Committee and the numerous volunteer board members who have dedicated their time, energy and resources to this effort. We are counting on them to keep the pace strong as we head into the final stretch of the campaign.

In the remaining year and a half, we will focus on several fundraising priorities. Chief among them is providing even greater scholarship support for students from low- and middle-income families. More than half of current UCLA undergraduates receive financial aid and more than a third go on to become first-generation college graduates. So far, our Centennial Campaign has raised nearly $440 million for student support, but more is needed.

We have no doubt that together we can achieve our goals as we enter our 100th year. Thank you for all you have done and will continue to do to advance UCLA’s mission as we embark on our next century.