Record Fundraising Year For Berkeley
Berkeley students aren’t the only ones pulling out their checkbooks for the university this year. From the UC Berkeley NewsCenter:
The University of California, Berkeley announced today a record fundraising year, raising $318.3 million in private support from alumni, parents and friends in the 2004-05 fiscal year. The record represents a nearly 83 percent gain from the previous year.
The total also reflects a record number of gifts to the university — 80,234 gifts from 54,128 donors. It includes the largest international gift ever received by the campus, $40 million for health sciences research.
Compared to last year, giving by alumni and foundations showed the most dramatic increases of any donor segment. Alumni giving jumped by 69 percent to $124.6 million, while giving by foundations increased 194 percent to $129 million.
Now, I’ve warned about the so-called “privatization” movement in the past, but if you look at some of the largest donors, they are foundations and private entities, not companies:
$40 million from the Li Ka Shing Foundation to support innovative research, including stem cell research, as part of the UC Berkeley Health Sciences Initiative. The donation, the largest international gift in the history of UC Berkeley, will go toward the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.
$25 million, given anonymously for campus capital projects.
$16 million from Col. Charles T. Travers ‘32. This includes a $12-million trust to endow the Department of Political Science, which has been named in honor of Travers and his late wife, Louise. It also includes $4 million to support the Cal football program.
While the situation could be better as far as obtaining public funding, it could be much worse in the realm of private financing. Additionally, it looks like a good deal of this money will not be going to research, but to projects and departments directly funded by student tuition and fees. Kudos to the UC Berkeley fundraising departments for jumpstarting a program that is about fifty years behind schedule.
(PS Sorry for the brief absence… the first few days of class are tough for us at CalStuff, but we’ll get things going again as soon as possible.)
First day of class.. pretty tough… like “Hi I’m professor XXX, let’s play the name game… by the way I have a nobel peace prize, 2 pulitzer prizes and I was a Rhode Scholar…”
Comment by Anonymous — September 7, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
I think we can ID the humanities guy.
Comment by Beetle — September 7, 2005 @ 3:51 pm
Record Fundraising Year For Berkeley
We’ll be hearing more about this:…
Trackback by News from Around the World — September 7, 2005 @ 4:10 pm
Finally, good news on the fundraising front.
I would for Birgeneau to think it’s because of him. Rather, it’s in spite of him.
Comment by Bhanu Singh — September 8, 2005 @ 10:03 pm
Speaking of such, what do you make off the blog ads?
Comment by McMike — September 10, 2005 @ 10:38 pm
McMike: nothing… they are from the blogsome site and they get any revenue from them. I can’t imagine that is anything beyond a nominal amount, but it’s what we have to put up with in exchange for free hosting.
Comment by Andy R. — September 11, 2005 @ 1:24 am
As long as Birgeneau doesn’t start getting anti Bush and anti war and all that crap, he’s fine. He doesn’t speak for all students.
Comment by RepBast1984 — September 11, 2005 @ 3:43 pm