UVa. Launches $3B Fund-Raising Campaign

March 31, 2005 - 6:35am

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - The University of Virginia has set its sights on $3 billion in donations by December 2011 under the most ambitious fund-raising campaign ever by the public university.

"We are absolutely determined to be among the elite in fund-raising institutions by 2010," Robert D. Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs, told the Board of Visitors on Saturday.

Sweeney said the development officers are taking a "blood oath" to reach their goal.

The university is off to a fast start, with four potential $100 million donors, Sweeney said, and 1,200 prospects for gifts of $1 million to $5 million.

The university's goal will require development officers to raise more than $1 million a day. Much of their focus will be on potential donors of $5 million or more, Sweeney said, and the campaign will take on a more personal approach than in previous years.

"You don't get people to double, triple, quadruple their giving with the same old arguments," Sweeney noted.

Board members endorsed the plan, which calls for a philanthropy model closer in spirit to Ivy League and other private universities than public schools.

Board member Susan Y. Dorsey cautioned, however, that U.Va. must let smaller donors know that their gifts are important. Of the $3 billion goal, $1.35 billion is expected to come from donors of $5 million or less.

As part of the campaign, the university is working on a consolidated database allowing development officers greater access to potential donors' profiles, which include their giving interests and contact information.

U.Va. is behind other universities in this regard, said President John T. Casteen III, who announced that he raised $3 million on a trip to Iceland last week. A central system should be up before too long, however, he said.