UC Surpasses $1 Billion Fundraising Goal Through Proudly Cincinnati Campaign

On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the University of Cincinnati announced that it surpassed the $1 billion goal of its Proudly Cincinnati campaign. More than 91,000 individual and corporate donors—including alumni, staff, community partners, corporations, foundations and friends of the university—helped UC reach the $1 billion mark four months ahead of the campaign’s June 2013 deadline.

This achievement places UC among 1 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities to have ever raised $1 billion.

"Raising $1 billion is a truly remarkable achievement, and we should take a moment to reflect and celebrate and, above all, to thank those who have supported us so generously,” said UC President Santa Ono, PhD, in a news release. "The key to this fundraising success, though, is not simply that we raised the money, but the impact it will have on everything from experiential learning to opportunities to study abroad.”

The Proudly Cincinnati campaign is continuing through June 30, 2013, with an additional goal of reaching 100,000 total donors.

Over the next four weeks, we will be featuring stories to highlight ways the campaign has positively impacted each of the four colleges at the Academic Health Center, improving our tripartite mission of education, research and clinical care. Please stay tuned to future issues of Featured.

Some facts about how the money has impacted the campus:

·         As of Jan. 31, 2013, 479 new scholarship funds, including many housed within the Academic Health Center, like the College of Nursing Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship Fund for Graduate Student Education, have been created. This scholarship was established in 2009 with a gift of $40,000 (out of $50,000 to be permanently endowed) from the Nursing Alumni Association. Since then, over $35,000 in gifts and pledges has been committed from dozens of MSN and PhD alumni. The fund is now fully endowed and is the first and only scholarship dedicated solely to nursing graduate students. Additionally, more than $36 million has been donated to create new scholarship funds across the UC campuses.

·         More than 30 new chairs have been endowed. For example, an endowed chair of molecular therapeutics was created within the UC Brain Tumor Molecular Therapeutics Program. The Harold C. Schott Foundation donated $2 million to make this possible.

·         The Lindner Center of HOPE, the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions and the Gardner Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders are in existence or have received upgrades as a result of the campaign.

·         The College of Medicine received the most assigned gifts with $110,444,971; the Lindner Center of HOPE brought in $58,405,350.

·         The Academic Health Center will receive $232,598,360 of the funds. Nearly $170 million of non-governmental research funding has fueled advancements and discoveries across UC since 2005. For example, in 2007, a $1 million donation from Ellen and the late George Rieveschl, PhD, was given to advance type 2 diabetes research.