Between faculty salaries, capital projects, renovations, operating expenses and countless other costs, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to keep the University up and running.
This spending goes on despite the fact that the University only receives 8 percent of its funding from the state, according to Robert Sweeney, University senior vice president for development.
While the University carries both a public label and a public price tag, the vast majority of its funds must be raised internally. Thus, the University intends to raise $3 billion over the next seven to eight years.
"What we are seeking to do at the University is to become what amounts to nothing less than a new model in American education," Sweeney said. "We want to be the first privately-financed public University that still holds public access."
To achieve such financial independence, the University plans to model its fundraising after top private universities, Sweeney said.
"We will need a new thinking relative to philanthropy," he said. "No longer are we benchmarking against Carolina and Michigan, but rather against Yale and Duke and [Johns] Hopkins."
With such goals in mind, the University's upcoming capital campaign is planned to be the largest in the history of higher education, according to Sweeney.
"To put the amount into perspective, raising $3 billion over this time period requires us to raise over $1 million every single day," he said.
Several avenues are in place to meet these targets. On a small scale, the Phon-a-thon program aims to raise money, update records and create partnerships with alumni, Phon-a-thon Assistant Director Lynn Reed said.
"We play a major role in terms of reaching people," she said. "We have already contacted over 25,000 individuals since January."
Phon-a-thon annually raises an average of $2 million from approximately 15,000 gifts, with an average gift of about $150, according to Reed.
For larger contributions, once a potential donor comes to the attention of the University, a gift officer contacts the donor in order to identify his or her interests. The University then attempts to target a project the alumnus would be interested in contributing to and engage him or her in a discussion as to how they can contribute, said Charles Fitzgerald, University senior associate vice president for development.
The process usually takes from 12 to 18 months.
From there, the University designates gifts into four categories
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