Wesleyan University said it recently wrapped its most successful fundraising campaign ever, a multi-year effort that netted $482 million.
That surpassed the private Middletown school’s original goal of $400 million, officially set in 2013. President Michael Roth reported in March of that year that the university had already raised $283 million towards its goal. Its largest single year was fiscal year 2016, during which it raised $79 million in gifts and pledges.
Officials said the biggest portion of the haul from the “This Is Why” campaign, $274 million, will be used for student financial aid, including the creation of 152 new endowed scholarships.
The funds will also help recruit and retain faculty. Wesleyan launched four new interdisciplinary colleges — in the areas of film, East Asian studies, environmental studies, and integrative sciences — as well as the Center for Pedagogical Innovation, and endowment support for the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing, Center for the Humanities, the Gordon Career Center, and the renovation of Boger Hall.
More than 34,000 donors gave to the campaign, with 80 percent of alumni donating according to Wesleyan. The school said Wesleyan parents donated $51 million.
The campaign included multiple events featuring big-name alums and parents like Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, Seinfield and Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and the creators of the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail.
