Centennial Campaign and Alumni | 2016 State of the Campus

“Let There Be . . . ” is both the challenge and the promise of the UCLA Centennial Campaign.

For the third consecutive year, UCLA established a new fundraising record for our campus.

During the 12 months ending June 30, 2016, the university received a total of $664 million in gifts and pledges, with donations of all sizes: Approximately 95 percent of gifts were less than $10,000. A record 61,740 donors made 79,422 gifts, and their generosity will support undergraduate scholarships, endowed professorships, graduate student fellowships and a wide array of other purposes.

octagon shape contains text that reads: “Fiscal Year ’16 total raised: $664M of $600M goal” | donut shape is filled in for about two-thirds of its circumference; text inside reads “Campaign raised to date: $2.7B of $4.2B goal”

The Centennial Campaign for UCLA, led by Vice Chancellor Rhea Turteltaub, reached its halfway point during 2015–16, and more than $2.8 billion has been raised — 67 percent toward the goal of $4.2 billion. The campaign, which was publicly launched in May 2014, leads up to UCLA’s 100th anniversary in 2019.

The campaign’s success thus far is compelling evidence that UCLA is achieving its goal to build broad-based support for the university through new outreach to alumni, friends and others.

black and white head shot of David Geffen wearing plain white t-shirt

group of elementary school students look at reels of film

(Left) Visionary donor David Geffen has made a series of transformative gifts to UCLA. (Right) Thanks in part to Monica and Philip Rosenthal’s generous support of the arts and the art of teaching at UCLA, the Visual and Performing Arts Education program brings demonstrations of classic film editing to local schoolchildren. (Top) Visionary donor David Geffen has made a series of transformative gifts to UCLA. (Bottom) Thanks in part to Monica and Philip Rosenthal’s generous support of the arts and the art of teaching at UCLA, the Visual and Performing Arts Education program brings demonstrations of classic film editing to local schoolchildren.

The single largest donation in 2015–16 came from the David Geffen Foundation, whose $100 million gift will help establish a new UCLA school serving Los Angeles-area students in grades 6 through 12. The Geffen Academy at UCLA will provide an innovative college preparatory education and serve our public mission by becoming a proving ground for cutting-edge secondary education.

UCLA also received numerous other gifts of $5 million or more that will advance its leadership in several areas. Among them were donations to bolster UCLA’s excellence in cancer immunotherapy (a $20 million gift), the arts and architecture ($20 million), music ($11.7 million), the physical sciences ($11 million), engineering and applied science ($10 million), neurology ($10 million) and athletics ($5 million).

In all, donors from 50 states and 61 countries took part in the campaign last year, more than 17,500 of whom gave to the campus for the first time. Sixty-five percent of the donors were UCLA alumni. Even as their gifts will support different disciplines and address different priorities, all of the donors gave with imagination and vision. Their commitment to UCLA illustrates the power of private philanthropy to inspire change.

man and woman shown from waist up, standing in front of a seven-story red brick structure

UCLA’s newly opened conference center bears the names of its generous donors, alumni Meyer and Renee Luskin.

As the academic year came to a close, UCLA approached the completion of a new campus landmark, which was made possible by another extraordinarily generous donation. In 2011, alumni Meyer and Renee Luskin donated $100 million to UCLA, establishing endowments for student and faculty support at the Luskin School of Public Affairs and enabling the creation of the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, which opened in October 2016.

The Luskins’ generosity presents the campus with a new space that will be home to collaboration and discovery, where leaders from different disciplines, with different perspectives and life experiences, meet and share knowledge — an incubator for fresh thinking to catalyze scientific and social progress.

A new model for Alumni

The past year also brought significant changes to UCLA’s Alumni Association, including the transition to an “all-in” membership donor model. Alumni and those who attended UCLA Extension are automatically general members of the association. They can upgrade their memberships and contribute toward the Centennial Campaign by giving to support the Alumni Association or alumni scholarship funds.

In the first year of the new model, Alumni Association membership increased to 515,619 from 92,000, and the program received $1.24 million in gifts from 3,141 alumni — one-third of whom were first-time donors. Sixty percent of the funds will support student scholarships.

The enhanced membership program offers alumni opportunities to volunteer and connect with UCLA through academic, professional, affinity and diversity networks in the areas where they live.