In the most ambitious
fundraising
campaign ever in the Chicago area,
Northwestern
University
plans to announce Friday that it has set out to raise $3.75
billion
for the Evanston-based institution.
If successful, it would be among the 10 largest
fundraising
efforts by a
university
in the United States. While there is no end date for the campaign — dubbed “We Will. The Campaign for
Northwestern
” —
university
officials hope the goal will be reached within five years.
To do that,
Northwestern
will have to raise about $9 million a week for nearly the rest of this decade. The
university
already has secured $1.52
billion
— about the entire amount raised during
Northwestern’s
last major
fundraising
effort, which ended in 2003. The
university
has counted toward the goal all gifts and pledges since September 2011, when the campaign quietly began, including nearly $300 million brought in last fiscal year.
Northwestern
officially will announce the effort Friday afternoon at receptions on the Evanston and Chicago campuses, and at a dinner for about 600 donors and
university
officials.
The campaign’s goals are broad and will pay for new buildings, including an athletics and recreation complex along Lake Michigan; student scholarships, including more aid for students from Chicago and abroad; endowed faculty positions; and research and academic programs in areas as diverse as biomedicine and music.
“We have some big plans,”
Northwestern
President Morton Schapiro told the Tribune in an exclusive interview about the campaign. “We were thinking about all these great ideas, and how much each budget would need to be. You add it up and it’s an enormous number.
“At the end of this decade, this place will be greater than it is now.”
Money raised will go toward four major new buildings, three of which have been announced and are in various stages of development: the biomedical research building in Chicago at the site of the former Prentice Women’s Hospital; a new, combined home for the Kellogg School of Management and Department of Economics on the east side of the Evanston campus; a new music and communications building in Evanston; and a significantly larger athletics complex than originally conceived, which the board of trustees plans to approve Friday.
The music and communications building is scheduled to be completed in spring 2015, and construction is expected to begin on the other three facilities within the next year. Other building projects include improvements to Deering Library, a new visitors center and an $80 million renovation of Kresge Centennial Hall, a major classroom building that houses many of the humanities departments.
Among the campaign’s largest goals is to increase financial aid for undergraduate, graduate and professional students, including those in the schools of law and medicine who graduate with the largest debts. The
university
also hopes to increase scholarships for international students, who currently receive little aid, and for Chicago Public Schools students through the “Good Neighbor, Great
University
” program that provides special financial aid packages for about 180 students from Chicago and Evanston.
Northwestern
currently provides nearly $300 million annually in student scholarships and fellowships, most of which comes from general revenue.
University
officials hope to increase the amount of scholarships funded by endowments in order to have a steady stream of income to pay for financial aid in the future.
“There are so many areas that people can get involved in, but the focus is on students and making sure
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Northwestern
is affordable and has the best facilities and the best dormitories and the best learning,” said Christopher Combe, a
Northwestern
alumnus and co-chair of the campaign whose family recently donated $16 million for various initiatives, including entrepreneurship programs that focus on solving societal challenges.
Northwestern’s
campaign begins as the economy is improving, and as other elite institutions have recently announced record-breaking
fundraising
targets. Harvard
University
launched a $6.5
billion
campaign in the fall and Columbia
University
recently completed a campaign that brought in $6.1
billion
.
After beginning the “quiet phase” of its campaign in March 2012, the
University
of Chicago expects to launch a large campaign later this year that could exceed
Northwestern’s
goal. The U. of C. had a near-record year in giving last year, with $458 million in new gifts and pledges following $308 million the previous year. The
University
of Illinois raised $2.43
billion
by the end of its most recent campaign in 2011.
“It is a good signal that colleges and
universities
are feeling confident about the economy and the willingness of their donors to step forward in support of the campaigns,” said John Lippincott, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Lippincott said that
university
campaigns used to focus on building projects but now emphasize ways the money can be used to “address a major societal issue.”
Two issues at the center of many recent
fundraising
drives have been student scholarships and interdisciplinary work to solve a particular challenge — both of which are true with
Northwestern’s
campaign.
“It is not surprising given what is a significant challenge for colleges and
universities
in terms of ensuring affordability for students from all economic backgrounds,” Lippincott said. The cost for an undergraduate to attend
Northwestern
this year exceeds $63,000, including tuition, room and board, and other expenses.
Among other projects, the
Northwestern
campaign will put increased funding toward:
* Enhancing the student experience, including financial aid. While
Northwestern
already has an undergraduate need-blind admission policy, the
university
wants to increase the amount of aid for middle-class families whose income ranges from $120,000 to $220,000. In addition to more financial aid, funding will go toward fellowships for graduate and professional students, undergraduate research, career services and new and renovated recreation facilities.
* Research, including applying nanotechnology to regenerative medicine in order to find new ways to repair, replace or regenerate the body’s tissues and organs. The ongoing work at
Northwestern
aims to help patients who are suffering from trauma, disease or genetic factors. The Querrey Simpson Charitable Foundation has pledged $25 million toward that effort.
* Global experiences, including more study abroad programs and financial aid for students to study abroad, and a newly created Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.
One of the larger gifts so far came from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, which has pledged $15 million, including $2.5 million to fund scholarships, $2.5 million to support medical advancements to help military veterans wounded in combat and $300,000 for a new immersion journalism program focused on issues of social justice, including investigations on the impact of drugs in Chicago communities.
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A $7.5 million gift from another donor will fund a collaboration between the
university
and the Chicago Botanic Garden to address a shortage of botanists and plant conservationists. The gift will pay for fellowships for graduate students in the
university’s
plant biology and conservation program.
In addition to the
fundraising
target,
Northwestern
has set a goal to have 140,995 donor participants.
The campaign “will support faculty and students in important ways. It will increase the presence of
Northwestern
in the Chicagoland area,” Schapiro said.
“Some of it is infrastructure, and I am excited about that. But much of it is what happens in the infrastructure, which I am even more excited about.”
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