Yale University has debuted a $7-billion capital campaign. The fundraising effort will support a wide range of engineering, scientific and medical endeavors, as well as leadership, artistic and collaboration efforts.
The campaign has already raised half of its goal amount from a small, targeted group of alumni during its silent phase, which began in July 2018. As of mid-October, the raised total stood at more than $3.53 billion. The campaign is expected to run through June 2026.
Another $3.5 billion in cash within five years is a solid stretch. Yale reported $716.7 million in commitments in its 2019-2020 Annual Report of Giving to Yale, including $570.2 million in cash, from 43,000 donors. But those pandemic-era figures represented a decline from the $826.8 million in commitments given in 2018-2019, a year that included $662.8 million in cash from 46,000 donors.
The $7-billion goal marks the largest capital campaign in Yale’s history – nearly double the $3.88 billion raised during the university’s Yale Tomorrow effort, which wrapped up in June 2011, according to YaleNews.
The funds will be used for university-wide improvements that have a strong scientific bent. Under the heading “Science for Breakthroughs,” the campaign will fund efforts that will benefit both human and planetary health, as well as explore the use of technology and advanced algorithms, with a goal toward empowering society rather than dividing it, according to the campaign’s website.
The campaign will support the university’s newly launched Yale Institute for Global Health, a cross-discipline effort backed by Yale’s medicine, nursing and public health schools that aims to streamline and speed new discoveries in these fields into widespread use.
The university’s museums and libraries are slated to receive technology boosts that will enable them to share their collections in new ways, including digitizing and disseminating items of significant cultural importance.
Funds will also further collaboration efforts within several Yale endeavors, including the Yale Planetary Solutions Project, which examines carbon mitigation, more effective economic policy and environmental justice; the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, which fosters communication among international leaders; and cross-discipline data analytics capabilities.
The humanities will not be left out of the loop: in addition to upgrades and new technology for the university’s museums and libraries, Yale’s divinity, humanities and social sciences operations, including the David Geffen School of Drama, will also benefit from donors’ largesse.
