Capital Campaign Reaches $5 Billion Mark

UPDATED: February 9, 2015, at 12:34 a.m.

The total value of gifts and pledges to the Harvard’s capital campaign has reached $5 billion, Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Tamara E. Rogers '74 said Friday.

The $5 billion figure comprises nearly 300,000 gifts from 100,000 households, according to Rogers.

“It’s a really broadly gauged campaign with a lot of participation,” Rogers said. “You tend to read about the gifts that come in like [Kenneth] Griffin’s for financial aid, but it’s a comprehensive effort so we have a lot of people who are participating.”

In September 2013, the University publicly launched its capital campaign—which had already taken in $2.8 billion in gifts and pledges in its “quiet” phase—with the goal of raising $6.5 billion. That figure, if raised, would top Stanford’s $6.2 billion campaign and be the most valuable fundraising drive in the history of higher education.

Last fiscal year alone, the University raised $1.16 billion in gifts, setting a record for the largest amount of gifts in a single year and beating out Stanford in fundraising for the first time since 2004, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education.

Notably, last calendar year, hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin ’89 donated $150 million, with at least $125 million of the gift directed to supporting financial aid at the College, and Gerald L. Chan donated $350 million to the School of Public Health. For their support, Griffin received the namesake for the financial aid office and the School of Public Health has been renamed in honor of Chan’s late father.

Rogers emphasized that alumni from Harvard’s more prominent schools have taken leadership roles in the campaigns of schools that traditionally have more trouble fundraising.

“I think another surprise…is the number of alums from the College and the Business School who have taken interest in other parts of Harvard and have been willing to make significant commitments,” Rogers said.

Forty-five percent of the capital campaign is directed toward teaching and research, 25 percent to financial aid and “the student experience,” 20 percent to capital improvements, and the remaining 10 percent will serve as “flexible funding to foster collaborations and initiatives.” Rogers said $590 million has been raised for financial aid across the University.

—Staff writer Theodore R. Delwiche can be reached at theodore.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @trdelwic.

—Staff writer Mariel A. Klein can be reached at mariel.klein@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariel_klein.