It’s been a record-breaking year for the University of California, Irvine in several aspects.
The university said it has raised $343 million, the most it ever has in a fiscal year, for its $2 billion Brilliant Future campaign, making it the largest fundraising campaign in UCI and Orange County history, according to officials.
“The community has been unbelievably generous with UCI over the last few years as we get close to the end of the Brilliant Future campaign,” Brian Hervey, vice chancellor for University Advancement and Alumni Relations, told the Business Journal.
About 20,000 donors made it the best fund-raising year ever, topping the $330 million in 2017, which included a $200 million gift from Henry and Susan Samueli. Its donations are more than double the prior decade long campaign that ended in 2015 when it raised $1 billion.
Privately launched in 2015 and publicly announced in 2019, the decade long campaign is set to close in October 2025.
To date, more than 100,000 donors have contributed to the campaign.
Healthcare Focus
The biggest gifts this past fiscal year were two donations of $50 million each that resulted in the renaming of the school of biological sciences and creation of a new school of public health.
During the commencement in June, UCI officials announced the gift from biotech entrepreneur Charles Dunlop, who was the featured speaker.
The school of biological sciences was named after the founder of Aliso Viejo-based genetic testing firm Ambry Genetics. A portion of the gift also supports the creation of an endowed fund for faculty recruitment, retention for graduate students and the development of new programs, officials said.
The other $50 million gift came from Joe Wen, founder of multinational conglomerate Formosa Ltd., to establish the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, elevating the existing program into a school.
The biggest portion of the $343 million donations went to healthcare.
UCI Health Affairs saw philanthropic contributions nearly triple from $77 million last year to $216 million this year, according to officials.
Not far from the main campus, UCI Health is also spending $1.3 billion to build a new medical complex at the corner of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive.
The 225,000-square-foot Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building opened in July and is said to be the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Orange County, according to officials. The Chao family has given more than $50 million to UCI since 1995.
It’s the second building to join the complex following the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care, a 168,000-square-foot outpatient facility that was supported by a $20 million gift made in 2022 from Wen and his family.
Nearby is the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, which will feature 12 interdisciplinary research programs dedicated to finding treatments to diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease and vision loss.
The 215,000-square-foot research center, funded in part by a $30 million gift from Adeline and Robert Mah through their Falling Leaves Foundation, is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in April 2025.
The Mah’s gift was among the largest charitable gifts reported in Orange County in 2021. Since the initial funding from the couple, UCI has raised an additional $10 million toward the project, according to Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs Steve Goldstein.
These recent additions reflect UCI’s goal to “transform healthcare and wellness” and “accelerate world-changing research,” two of four pillars the Brilliant Future campaign is built on.
While there has been a focus on healthcare and research, the money is being “evenly distributed across campus” in terms of projects with about a third going toward new capital, another third being used for endowments and the last third acting as spendable money for program development and scholarships, Hervey said.
“It’s pretty amazing if you look across the board,” he said.
95% of Goal Met
The campaign has raised $1.9 billion total to date, or about 95% of its $2 billion goal.
Hervey said he expects the campaign to surpass its goal ahead of when it concludes next fall.
“We should hit early given the community’s amazing generosity,” he said.
UCI’s “fundraising success is a testament to the university’s strides in addressing global challenges, transforming lives and shaping the future,” Gary Singer, chair of the UCI Foundation Board of Trustees, said in a statement.
Singer, a 1974 graduate from UCI with a degree in political science, is a retired partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and is chairman of the Ronald M. Simon Family Foundation.
The caliber of giving in Orange County outpaces other parts of the country, said Hervey, who has spent over 20 years raising money for Texas A&M University and Scott & White Healthcare Foundation.
“As I’ve traveled across the country and helped many institutions raise money, it’s been quite amazing to see the level of philanthropy here in Orange County by people that actually live here,” Hervey said. “It’s not necessarily just alumni, it’s also members of the community who care about higher education.”
Another pillar for the Brilliant Future campaign is centered around “advancing the American dream” for students, primarily focused on student support.
This year, UCI ranked among the top 10 public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for the ninth year in a row.
“Often, the top universities in the country are the ones raising billions of dollars in support for research and education,” Hervey said.
UCI reportedly invested $217.8 million in financial aid for the last academic year, with nearly 70% receiving some form of assistance, according to UC statistics.
The university this year admitted a record number of California students with 19,000 first-year and nearly 9,000 transfer students for the fall 2024 quarter. Admissions were driven largely by first-generation and under-represented students, according to officials.
UCI said it received more than 146,000 applications for the 2024-2025 academic year and increased the number of admits in popular STEM majors, including computer science, engineering and health science.
As the second-largest employer in OC with 26,072 employees, Hervey said UCI is expanding its career pathways program which creates internship and industry opportunities for current students and alumni.
