The University of Vermont announced Monday that it had raised a total of $581 million and completed its eight-year “Move Mountains” fundraising campaign this summer.
The campaign was publicly announced under then-President Tom Sullivan in October 2015 with a goal of $500 million. The university said it had passed that goal almost a year ahead of schedule, and the campaign included gifts from 75,000 donors.
Shane Jacobson, president and CEO of the University of Vermont Foundation, said this campaign more than doubled the amount raised in the university’s last capital campaign in the 2000s.
“In this campaign, we’re focused on students and on the student experience,” he said. “Student financial aid was a was a big piece of it, and enroll quite a few Vermont students… We built some new facilities and renovated facilities, which improves the student experience.”
Of the $581 million, more than $331 went to “academic, athletic, research, student, and patient programs,” according to the university. This includes the $100 million Helen and Robert Larner gave to the College of Medicine, which is now named after them.
Other gifts in this category include the $5 million gift from Mass Mutual for a data science center and gifts that established a Humanities Center, the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education and the UVM Cancer Center.
The wide-ranging category also includes funding for internships, study abroad programs, athletics, student clubs and organizations and unrestricted funds that fall under the president’s discretion, Jacobson said.
Around $83.7 million of the gifts went to undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships. The “sticker price” for UVM — tuition and all fees, including room and board — has consistently risen over the past ten years, from $24,874.00 in 2009-10 to $31,748 for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Jacobson said that philanthropy was a “piece of the puzzle” in keeping tuition increases down.
“Philanthropy that supports student scholarships, plays a role and is helpful in reducing the need to increase tuition or increase tuition at a faster rate,” he said. “It’s certainly very helpful for the university to have more student financial aid gifts as a way to lower the barrier to a college degree.”
Almost $67 million in funding raised during the campaign is also going to create 69 new endowed faculty chairs and professorships, which more than doubles the pre-campaign total. Of these, 39 were in the College of Medicine, eight were in the College of Arts and Sciences and the remaining 22 were in other parts of the university.
Donations were also used for constructing or renovating the university’s campus, with nearly $100 million going to infrastructure projects. This included renovations to Cohen Hall, Ifshin Hall, Billings Library and the UVM Alumni House.
Jacobson said discussions with campus stakeholders lead the university to determine that infrastructure investments should play a major role in this fundraising campaign.
The $32 million in donations for the major renovation of the school’s basketball and hockey facilities also fell under this fundraising campaign.
The lead donors for the project, IDX founder and former Republican Senate candidate Richard Tarrant and his wife, Deborah, gave $15 million to the project, the largest capital gift in university history. The complex will be named in their honor.
Faculty and students protested earlier this year against cutbacks in the College of Arts and Sciences, with some questioning why the school was renovating facilities while cutting humanities faculty.
“The concerns that were being brought forward, didn’t seem to play a factor in [donors] making a gift or not,” Jacobson said. “Generally speaking, donors are motivated to support initiatives where they have a high degree of belief in their gift making real impact.”
The successful fundraising campaign is a significant part of outgoing president Tom Sullivan’s legacy. Sullivan, who stepped down this summer, also oversaw a record number of applications and an increase in graduation rates.
But some students called for his resignation last year for his handling of racist incidents on campus.
Sullivan’s successor, Suresh Garimella, assumed the position July 1. Garimella came to UVM from Purdue University, where he was the executive vice president for research and partnerships.
Thirty-five percent of donors during the campaign were Vermonters. More than half of the donors, 39,000, gave their first gift during the fundraising campaign.
Garimella has made a commitment to focusing on student financial aid at the university.
“I anticipate that’s going to continue to be a focus moving forward,” Jacobson said.
