The University of Michigan has met a major fundraising goal by surpassing the 4 billion USD mark, announced Jerry May, the Vice President for Development.
The campaign goal was met with 20 months to spare, May noted, after being launched in 2013
She said that the university still needs to make progress in the next 20 months as it approaches its $1 billion goal for student support, with $917 million raised toward that goal.
She credited a push of donations, both on a larger scale from faculty, staff and retirees, in helping reach the campaign's overall benchmark.
"This was the spring when we normally ask our faculty and staff completely voluntarily if they would like to give again to the university and over 2,000 faculty, staff and retirees have give to the university in the past month," May said. "The good news is this momentum has actually pushed us past our $4 billion milestone this week."
The University still needs to raise an additional 484 million USD to meet its goals for all of its individual units and other strategic priorities such as precision health, the biosciences, the Poverty Solutions initiative, sustainability, innovation and a wide range of efforts focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
"It is a milestone passed, but we have a long way to go to complete our campaign," May said.
Last week the university was aided by 15 million USD from the Ford Motors for a new robotic building for the College of Engineering, and a 5 million USD from longtime donors Bill and Dee Brehm for scholarships in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
The majority owner of the Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross pledged 200 million USD towards the campaign. He allocated 100 million USD towards the Michigan business school, which is named in his honor.
Richard Rogel, who is the brainchild of Preferred Provider, gave 50 million USD.
The chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charles Munger donated 20 million USD to the law school and 100 million USD towards the construction of a new graduate school residence.
Last year in July, the University received a 17.5 million commitment from Madeline and Sidney Forbes toward cancer research. The funds were used to create the Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery within the University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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