After the University surpassed its $2 billion Campaign for Duke goal in January, a year before the campaign's official end Dec. 31, administrators set their sights on an even bigger sum. Now, the campaign has reached its $2.2 billion target with almost a month to spare.
As of Dec. 1, pledges and gifts amounted to $2.22 billion, with all but one division exceeding their fundraising goals. Robert Shepard, vice president for development, said the final division, the University Libraries, will reach its $40 million goal very soon.
"Right now the library is just $1 million short," Shepard said. "We do not book a gift until it is formally signed, but we have verbal pledges.... A week from now, every single department will have filled its bucket."
When the Board reviewed the campaign's progress at its last meeting in October, the University had raised $2.159 billion. A number of divisions were still short of their marks, including Arts and Sciences, which needed $7 million, and University-wide priorities of financial aid, facilities and faculty support with a combined sum of $165 million left to raise under the new $2.2 billion target.
Now, Arts and Sciences has raised 102 percent of its original $400 million goal and University-wide priorities have found 108 percent of their target. Other divisions have done even better: The Pratt School of Engineering brought in 123 percent of its $170 million goal and the School of Law secured 121 percent of its $55 million goal.
Although the University has raised the money it set out to raise, Shepard said the campaign has certainly not come to a halt. Even with the University just shy of its $2.2 billion goal in October, those involved with the campaign did not rest on their laurels.
"The campaign really has stepped up in the last few months," said Board of Trustees Chair Peter Nicholas, who is chairing the campaign. "Many people were waiting to see where the empty buckets were so as to ensure that their contributions would not only be felt in the overall total but would target to more specific needs."
Fundraisers, including development staff and the deans of the University's various schools, have paid particular attention to potential donors who have been on the fence about donating over the last few years.
"We have been out seeing people who have, either for reasons of economic or personal situations, wanted to do something for the campaign but couldn't at the time," Shepard said. "A number of the people we've been going back to have been very responsive, trying to help us at the very end of the campaign."
Shepard said the University has received a number of substantial gifts since October, but was not at liberty to discuss the details of those gifts.
Duke is only one of a number of American universities seeking to raise at least $1 billion with their current capital campaigns. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the 21 universities with campaign goals of at least $1 billion have been showing dramatic results on a month-by-month basis.
As of Nov. 1, the University of California at San Francisco raised $1.213 billion of its $1.4 billion by 2005 goal; $55.1 million of that came in the last month for which data was available, making the school's campaign the most lucrative of the pack over a recent one-month period.
Duke has also raised a lot of money in a period in which it could potentially be winding down. The Campaign for Duke pulled in $27.9 million in the month preceding Nov. 24--outperforming many of the 21 universities in the survey. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology--whose goal, like Duke's, was to raise $2 billion by 2004--took in only $12.2 million in the last month, according to data from Nov. 14.
"Duke has been such an exemplar among universities in this country for so many years, on an extraordinary trajectory of excellence across the board," Nicholas said. "This successful campaign is not only a success in terms of meeting and exceeding our own goals, but also in setting a standard that will be very difficult for other universities to aspire for or achieve."
With the $2.2 billion goal behind them, fundraisers will continue to reach out to potential donors until Dec. 31, as well as after the official end of the campaign.
"In the next couple of weeks, we will have concluded a very successful campaign by any standard," said Nicholas, who will be updating the Board of Trustees on the campaign when it meets this weekend. "I myself have been somewhat astonished by the generosity of the people who have supported Duke. It really augurs well for the future."
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