U of A announces $2 billion raised toward $3 billion goal

The University of Arizona has already raised $2 billion of its newly announced $3 billion fundraising campaign, administrators announced Friday.

The campaign, called Fuel Wonder, officially began in January 2017 but was only publicly announced this week. It raised the first $2 billion in its silent phase and is the biggest fundraising campaign in university history.

“We need resources, we need money to be able to support programs, to support our students, towards building buildings and buying equipment,” UA President Robert Robbins said at the announcement. “That’s the fuel that’s going to help us to reach the stratosphere and beyond into the universe.”

Gifts from alumni and friends of the university have resulted in the highest endowment-giving years in the school’s history, with a six-year total of $423.7 million. Currently, the university’s endowment is valued at $1.2 billion.

“This is going to be absolutely transformational for the university,” Robbins said of the campaign.

There have been more than 128,000 unique donors so far, he added, and “no gift is too small; every gift is significant.”

Gifts included a total of $27.35 million benefiting students and student programming and $36.5 million benefiting faculty and research, including millions towards the Baird Scholars Fund, the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center, cancer research and the Adaptive Athletics Program, among other ventures.

The $3 billion goal matches recent multi-billion-dollar campaigns at other public universities including the University of California Berkley and the University of Texas Austin. Arizona State University recently wrapped up a campaign raising $2.35 billion. Private institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Northwestern frequently launch campaigns seeking billions of dollars.

“Not many institutions are doing these types of campaigns this size,” said John-Paul Roczniak, president and CEO of the University of Arizona Foundation. “And, you know, we believe we’re in that same club.”

Robbins was joined on stage by a plethora of university leaders and alumni involved in the fundraising campaign, including its co-chairs Marianne Cracchiolo Mago ‘93 and Terry Lundgren ‘75.

“We can accomplish great things, (which) starts with an outstanding faculty, which we have, our research, and the willingness to work together to solve the problems that we know about,” Lundgren told the crowd. He is the former executive chairman of Macy’s, Inc., the parent company of fashion retailers Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury.

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“We already attract a very capable and determined and hungry student body here at the University of Arizona,” Lundgren said. “There’s absolutely no limit to what they can accomplish.”

Cracchiolo Mago, who is the president of the Steele Foundation, is also enthusiastic about the campaign and the work her alma mater has done.

“I’m in awe of everything that’s happening here,” she said. “I can’t believe what you’ve accomplished between environmental resilience, space exploration, retail. It’s just, it’s all happening here.”

Most of the university officials at the event expressed their gratitude to alumni like Lundgren and Cracchiolo Mago for their financial support.

“Our donors have stepped up to support our students,” said Roczniak, of the UA Foundation. “They want to make sure they have the opportunity to be successful, go off and launch their career.”

Humberto Lopez ‘69, founder of HSL Properties, is one of those alums. His mother moved him and his five siblings from Mexico to Arizona after his father died and the family faced poverty. Lopez attended community college and then transferred to the UA, where he graduated with an accounting degree. He has given more than $36 million to the university.

“I graduated from the University of Arizona and I didn’t know what career was going to follow, but I knew that I was going to be an entrepreneur someday,” he said, adding later that he was “very grateful to the University of Arizona.”

Roczniak said he tries to remind alumni of the impacts of the university when asking them to donate.

“Every donor, they think about this place as a place that’s changed their lives,” he said. “They want the students who are here today and the students that are going to be here tomorrow, to have that same opportunity.”