In the midst of one of the worst financial crises on record, UVA has raised $2 billion in its $3 billion fundraising campaign.
Although this goal marks a significant achievement for the University, Chairman of the Campaign for the University of Virginia and former Rector Gordon Rainey Jr. noted that it took a bit more time than expected to get to where it is now.
“To have achieved our $2 billion interim goal just eight weeks later than originally projected is a remarkable achievement,” he said in a press release.
The campaign began on January 1, 2004 and will end on December 31, 2011. According to the press release, by August 31 the campaign received 449,000 gifts and pledges (with 1, 233 of at least $100,000 and 113 of at least $1 million).
Some of the largest gifts were from the late Frank Batten Sr., who donated $100 million for the creation of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and from the estate of David Harrison III, whose trust donated $64 million to professorships in law and medicine. The trust of Ward Buchanan gave $52.6 million as an unrestricted endowment fund to the University Medical Center. John Kluge conveyed the Morven Farms ($45 million). The Ivy Foundation donated $45 million to expand the Health System and Philip Morris USA donated $25 million to support research in diverse fields.