The University of Kansas unveiled a fundraising campaign to generate $2.5 billion in contributions by 2028 for benefit of students and faculty as well as academic and research facilities.
The KU Endowment Association’s campaign known as “Ever Onward” would be the largest in the history of KU and the KU Health System. At this point, officials said Thursday during a kickoff event, $1.6 billion or 56% of the goal had been raised.
“We are excited about the future,” said Doug Girod, the university’s chancellor. “We know that it’s a future full of urgent and complex challenges. We know no single discipline, no one campus can build a better world alone. But, together, we leverage all the strengths of the University of Kansas — our health system, our academic medical center and all the schools on the hill.”
The objective of the current campaign would substantially surpass the $1.6 billion generated by KU in the “Far Above” program that concluded in 2016.
The new campaign seeks donations for scholarships to make higher education more affordable for students and for investments in recruitment and retention of teaching and research faculty. The plan seeks funding to broaden the university’s involvement in business innovation and entrepreneurship, officials said.
KU, which operates a comprehensive cancer center, intends to anchor the drive with the goal of financing a new treatment and research building on its campus in Kansas City, Kansas.
The latest KU campaign would exceed recent fundraising drives at other public universities in Kansas. In 2022, Kansas State University said the endowment received commitments of $1.4 billion during the “Innovation and Inspiration” fundraising drive that had an original target of $1 billion.
Wichita State University said in 2020 the university’s endowment attracted $307 million for a campaign designed to raise $$250 million.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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