UConn raises $720M in first phase of largest ever $1.5B fundraising campaign
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The UConn campus in Storrs.
UConn’s multi-year fundraising campaign, “Because of UConn,” has raised nearly half of the $1.5 billion it needs, and the school is now asking the public for help.
UConn announced Thursday that it raised about $720 million from lead donors during the “quiet phase” of the campaign, which began in 2020. The $1.5 billion fundraising effort is the largest in UConn’s history.
Now, UConn is launching the public phase of the campaign, as it reaches out more broadly to its alumni and friend base to procure the remaining $780 million.
The campaign, which aligns with UConn’s 10-year strategic plan, covers all of UConn’s colleges, campuses and UConn Health. The strategic plan aims to “make a UConn education more affordable and a UConn degree more valuable” by elevating UConn among its national peers, the school says.
The campaign supports four pillars of UConn’s core mission: a students-first approach, academic and innovation excellence, health and wellness of people and the planet, and “Husky pride.”
The campaign’s top priority is to create opportunities for students, improve student retention and graduation rates, and invest in student success.
UConn has set a goal to increase its six-year graduation rate from 83% to 90% by 2030.
The campaign’s goals also include investing in financial aid and student health, as well as career readiness and life skills programs.
The academic and innovation excellence aspect involves investing in top faculty and graduate fellows.
The health and wellness pillar focuses on patient care, medical research and developing life-changing technologies to improve health outcomes.
“Husky pride” refers to investing in athletic excellence and UConn’s NCAA teams, in addition to supporting a base of over 290,000 alumni worldwide.
During the campaigns’ first phase, UConn alumna Elisabeth DeLuca, the widow of Subway cofounder Fred DeLuca, donated $52 million, which will be used to build a new state-of-the-art nursing facility to help address the statewide nursing shortage.
Also, Peter Werth, who received an honorary doctorate from UConn in 2015, donated $46.5 million to create an institute that “empowers students and faculty to transform ideas into impactful ventures that fuel economic growth and opportunity.”
Werth, a research scientist, founded ChemWerth Inc., a company dedicated to making generic drugs more accessible and affordable, in his home of Woodbridge in 1982.
Other majors donations include:
- Over $25 million from alumni Denis and Britta Nayden, whose support has helped launch programming in the School of Business, expand scholarship support and to advance initiatives in student athlete financial literacy, mental health and wellness.
- $15 million from alumna Dr. Trisha Bailey to establish a facility that advances academic achievement, mental and physical wellness and athletic excellence.
- Over $11 million from alumna Toni Boucher, marked by a lead gift to establish the Boucher Management & Entrepreneurship Department, empowering students across disciplines to launch innovative ventures, drive economic growth and honor the entrepreneurial legacy of her late husband.
Corporate support for the campaign has come from: Eversource, Synchrony, Travelers, The Hartford, RTX, Stanley Black & Decker and Bank of America.
“‘Because of UConn’ will have a profound impact on the University,” said Amy Yancey, president and CEO of the UConn Foundation. “It will double the number of named scholarships, fund scientific breakthroughs and advanced lifesaving therapies, and engage UConn Nation in the life and mission of the University like never before.”
Click here for more information or to donate to the campaign.
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