“Our Rutgers, Our Future” is a seven-year campaign to raise $1 billion to support and enhance the many ways that Rutgers University serves students, The State of New Jersey and beyond.

This historic campaign will sustain Rutgers in its work of education, research and service and help secure its place among the nation’s most highly respected public research universities.

Campaign Goals

This comprehensive campaign addresses critical needs across all areas of Rutgers University. Here’s how the goals of the $1 billion campaign break down:
  • 40 percent to support faculty and research
  • 25 percent to support students and learning
  • 15 percent to support campuses and facilities
  • 15 percent to support university and community programs
  • 5 percent for other Rutgers initiatives.


Fundraising to Date

During the campaign’s “quiet phase,” which began in 2007, the Rutgers University Foundation has raised $472 million – nearly half the campaign’s overall goal. Fundraising highlights include:

  • Gifts from more than 76,000 donors, including nearly 25,000 donors who have given to Rutgers for the first time
  • 382 new scholarships, which have already provided financial support to hundreds of Rutgers undergraduates
  • 12 new endowed chairs in 10 fields of study – including life sciences, economics and mathematics.


Notable Gifts

  • The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has given more than $46 million for health-related education and research initiatives and programs, including:
  • $10 million to establish the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health
  • Support for various initiatives at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research in the School of Arts and Sciences.
  • An anonymous $13 million gift, the largest single private donation from an individual in university history, will help Rutgers launch a long-term initiative to develop its Livingston Campus in Piscataway as a center for business and professional studies.
  • $10 million will support construction of a new building for the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick on the Livingston Campus.
  • The remaining $3 million will be used to establish the Bennett L. Smith Endowed Chair in Business and Natural Resources, named for the late geology professor who retired from Rutgers in 1974. 
  • Alumnus John J. Byrne Jr. (Rutgers College 1954) has given $10 million to the campaign.
  • $8 million supports the Byrne Family First-Year Seminar Program, which connects prominent faculty with first-year students. Each of these small, one-credit courses is limited to 20 students. This academic year, more than 2,500 Rutgers first-year students are expected to participate in Byrne seminars.
  • Additional donations support the Joshua Barlaz Chair in Mathematics and the Henry Rutgers Research Scholars Program.
  • Alumnus Mir Imran (Engineering 1977) has pledged $6 million to support academic initiatives in the School of Engineering.
  • $1.5 million will support the Imran Family Scholarship to benefit undergraduate engineering students.
  • $1.5 million will go to the Imran Fund for the School of Engineering. This will create a dean’s discretionary fund for faculty research.
  • $3 million will support the Mir Imran Endowed Chair in Bioengineering.
  • A $2 million pledge from alumnus Albert R. Gamper Jr. (University College-Newark 1966) – $1.5 million for need-based scholarships for Rutgers-Newark students and $500,000 for scholarships for student-athletes

For more information, read the campaign news release.

 

Media Contact: Greg Trevor
gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu
E-mail: gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu