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Governance

Facts About the Successful Completion of 'Our Rutgers, Our Future'

Date

January 22, 2015

Read the release: Rutgers Surpasses $1 Billion Fundraising Goal

Overview

“Our Rutgers, Our Future,” the largest and most comprehensive fundraising campaign in the university’s nearly 250-year history, began in 2007 and launched publicly in 2010. The seven-and-a-half-year campaign reached and surpassed its $1 billion goal by its formal close on Dec. 31, 2014. 

Campaign Totals

Grand Total: $1,037,056,700 – surpassing the campaign’s goal by more than $37 million

Total Number of Donors: 130,450, including 70,690 alumni

Totals Raised in Key Areas

Faculty and Research: $412.6 million

Students and Learning: $286.1 million

Campuses and Facilities: $132.7 million

University and Community Programs: $174.2 million

Total New Endowment: $310 million

New Endowed Faculty Chairs: 29

New Endowed Undergraduate Scholarships and Graduate Fellowships: 449

Campaign Co-Chairs

  • Albert Gamper – 1966 University College-Newark
  • Keiko Harvey – 1972 Engineering
  • Duncan MacMillan – 1966 Rutgers College
  • Ernest Mario – 1961 Pharmacy
  • Thomas Renyi – 1967 Rutgers College, 1968 Rutgers Business School

Campaign Highlights

Universitywide

  • $40.6 million from an anonymous donor, the largest individual contributor to the campaign. Gifts from this donor included:
  • $27 million for a challenge grant to establish 18 new endowed chairs in a wide range of academic disciplines. For every $1.5 million that is raised for an endowed chair that meets the donor’s criteria, the donor will match the gift with an additional $1.5 million. A total endowment of $3 million is needed to create an academic chair.
  • $10 million to support construction of the new academic building for the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick that is anchoring the transformation of the Livingston Campus at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. 
  • $3 million to establish the Bennett L. Smith Endowed Chair in Business and Natural Resources. 
  • $5.9 million to support Rutgers Future Scholars. Each year, the Rutgers Future Scholars program introduces 200 first-generation, low-income and academically promising middle school students from school districts in Rutgers' four home communities – 50 each from New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden – to the promise and opportunities of a college education. For students who successfully complete the pre-college part of the program and are admitted to Rutgers, the university provides full tuition funding. 

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

  • $20 million for the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health. Launched with a $10 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and another $10 million research endowment from an anonymous donor, the institute is dedicated to fighting childhood obesity associated with adult diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. 
  • $10 million from Mr. and Mrs. John J. Byrne, including $8 million to support the Byrne Family First-Year Seminars, which offer incoming Rutgers students a chance to explore science, art, politics and other critical academic topics as they learn from professors who are deeply – and passionately – immersed in research. The late Mr. Byrne was a 1954 Rutgers College graduate.  
  • $5 million from alumni Gary and Barbara Rodkin, including $2 million to support an endowed operating fund and scholarship at the new Honors College-New Brunswick, which will admit its first students in fall 2015. Gary Rodkin is a 1974 Rutgers College graduate; Barbara Rodkin is a 1976 Douglass College graduate.  

Rutgers University-Newark

  • $4 million in grants from the Ford and Sunshine Lady foundations to fund NJ-STEP, which provides college courses to people in prison and works to enroll them upon release. 
  •  $1.5 million from Albert and Janice Gamper for an endowment to provide need-based scholarships for Rutgers University-Newark students. Overall, the Gampers gave a total of $2.3 million to support the entire university during the campaign.

Rutgers University-Camden

  • $2 million from Joseph S. and Loretta L. Lopez  to establish an endowed chair in mathematics – the first endowed chair at Rutgers University-Camden – in honor of the memory of Leonard Bidwell, a respected Rutgers-Camden faculty member. Joseph Lopez is a 1964 Camden College of Arts and Sciences graduate. 
  • $1 million from the Daniel Ragone Foundation to create the Daniel J. Ragone Center for Excellence in Accounting at the Rutgers School of Business-Camden to advance innovations in accounting practice and education. The new center is supported by this respected South Jersey community and business leader and his family, including sons Daniel Jr., Dean and David Ragone, all Rutgers graduates.

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

  • $10 million from an anonymous donor to help advance the treatment of patients with rare and virulent cancers that don’t respond to standard therapies. The gift will strengthen the university’s research and clinical practice of identifying genetic abnormalities that make tumors cancerous and using those details to fine-tune treatment. This rapidly growing approach to research and care is known as precision medicine. 
  • $1.5 million to establish the Benjamin Rush Chair at New Jersey Medical School, named for the beloved teacher and legendary figure in the field of surgery. Established with a bequest from the estate of Dr. Rush and a fundraising effort following his death in February 2013. The money raised is being matched with funds from the 18 Chair Challenge.