Alumni, parents, and friends of the University of California, Berkeley contributed $267.9 million in gifts and pledges in the 2006–07 fiscal year to support students, faculty, and research to help extend Cal’s excellence.
The private support was mostly in the form of outright gifts, pledge payments, and matching gifts totaling $200 million. The balance of private support, $67.9 million, came in the form of new pledges.
There were 85,061 gifts and pledges from 57,850 donors. While overall private support declined from the record high of $347.6 million the previous fiscal year, the total number of gifts and pledges in 2006–07 represents the fourth highest level ever raised at UC Berkeley.
Individuals gave the greatest share of private support, with alumni contributing $94.2 million in gifts and pledge payments, and other individuals donating $23.9 million.
“These gift totals highlight the role that individuals play in supporting the preeminent public university in the world,” said Vice Chancellor Scott Biddy. “Our alumni, Cal parents, friends, and even student donors all recognize the importance of Berkeley in their lives and in the world, and in the process they are building a new tradition of philanthropy here.”
Top gifts and pledges for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, include:
- $11 million in gifts and pledges, by the Simons Foundation, to advance the work of the Helios Project, a program in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Helios Project targets the development of efficient processes to produce transportation fuel from biomass or from solar energy-driven electrochemistry.
- $6.6 million, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to support the Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, a two-year fellowship targeted to outstanding new Ph.D.s in economics, political science, and sociology to advance their involvement in health policy research. The University of California — through UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and UCSF — is one of three institutions that participates in the program.
- $5 million, from the Fred H. Bixby Foundation, to support students through the Fred H. Bixby Endowed Fund in Population and Family Planning in the School of Public Health.
- $5 million, from the Sea Change Foundation, for the Helios Project.
A record $2.1 million also was raised online for programs across the campus through the University’s online giving site at givetocal.berkeley.edu. This included gifts from 7,828 donors.
