Yale Tomorrow tops goal

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With the help of several recent gifts to the University, Yale has topped the goal it set for the fundraising campaign it began in 2006.

As of March 31, Yale had raised $3.534 billion as part of Yale Tomorrow, its comprehensive five-year drive for donations. Although the campaign passed its $3.5 billion goal three months before its end date of June 30, Vice President for Development Inge Reichenbach said University officials will continue to seek donations to the endowment and to specific projects such as the new residential colleges.

Drew Henderson

“We don’t want to present this like we are done with the campaign, because we aren’t,” Reichenbach said. “We still have a number of gift conversations that we hope our donors will close before June 30.”

In the last two weeks, two significant gifts to the University brought Yale closer to its goal: a $50 million donation from John Malone ’63 to the School of Engineering and Applied Science and a $40 million donation from the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to establish a research partnership with the School of Medicine and West Campus. When the committee last calculated campaign totals at the end of January, Yale Tomorrow had raised a total of $3.35 billion.

Reichenbach declined to say which gift brought the campaign total over $3.5 billion, saying that an announcement will be made at a later date.

Though the campaign has exceeded expectations, the Office of Development’s work is not done — the endowment has still not fully recovered following the financial recession of 2008, she said, and the University continues to seek endowment gifts marked for professorships and financial aid.

“[Endowment gifts] help us in areas that have great need,” Reichenbach said. “[But] every gift is important.”

The University will also continue to seek donations to construction projects in other schools and units that lack sufficient funds, she added.

Reichenbach declined to estimate what the final total of the campaign would be, adding she would “rather not speculate.”

“It’s really hard to predict,” Reichenbach said. “I hope that we will go significantly over this goal, but three months could be $60 million or three months could be a lot more.”

As University officials anticipate the close of Yale Tomorrow, Reichenbach said her office has begun planning for a celebration on campus in September to thank donors for their participation in the campaign.

Administrators have also begun establishing priorities for fundraising after the campaign, she said. During the next meeting of the Yale Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, Reichenbach said she will deliver a presentation on planning for fundraising after the campaign ends.

The corporation will next meet on April 15.