There is no being quiet about it anymore: UC Davis today (Oct. 22) publicly launched its $1 billion fundraising campaign, one that Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi says “matches the bold vision that we have created for ourselves.”

The comprehensive campaign is the first such effort in the university’s history — comprehensive because it takes in every college, school, department and program across UC Davis, all raising money toward a common dollar goal over a period of years.

The campaign began in July 2006 with a “quiet” phase to assess support and determine fundraising goals. Donors pledged more than $605 million during this period.

Now, in the public phase, expected to last until 2014, the university seeks to bring in the rest, Over the entire campaign, the university hopes to draw support from at least 100,000 donors.

“I am greatly encouraged by the campaign’s success to date,” Katehi said, “and grateful to the university’s donors, campaign cabinet, trustees of the UC Davis Foundation, and other volunteer fundraising leaders, whose efforts have been vital in achieving more than half of our goal during our early, quiet-phase efforts.

“My thanks also go to UC Davis’ outstanding faculty, staff and students for their involvement in this effort,” the chancellor said in a news release.

The university launched The Campaign for UC Davis — and celebrated it — during a public event this morning at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Watch the campaign video.

Yesterday (Oct. 21), in the lobby of Shields Library, Katehi and others gave a campaign briefing to the media.

“This is one of the most important announcements in the 100-year history of UC Davis,” alumnus Kevin Bacon told the media. Bacon, who graduated in 1972, is chair of the UC Davis Foundation, which provides important volunteer fundraising leadership for the university.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, whose district takes in the main campus, said: “Even in Washington, D.C., a billion dollars is a lot of money.

“There’s a lot of good that will come from this kind of investment and commitment.”

Campaign officials said the money will help increase student scholarships and financial aid; create new endowed chairs and professorships; enrich teaching and research; improve patient care; enhance the university environment through improvements in facilities, library materials, art and scholarly collections, and equipment; and allow the campus to act on emerging opportunities.

‘Generous hand of private philanthropy’

Katehi, Bacon and Thompson addressed the media against a backdrop of students, faculty and other researchers — representing the very people for whom philanthropic contributions mean so much.

Professor Kathryn Dewey, recipient of $16 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, talked about her efforts to combat malnutrition in Africa — via a peanut-butter-like nutritional supplement. Research such as hers, Dewey said, would not be possible without “the generous hand of private philanthropy.”

After the news conference, graduate students and the UC Davis News Service ushered the reporters and camera crews around the campus — in electric cars — to see selected research projects and new facilities:

• Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital — Stem-cell therapy in horses, with implications for people as well.

• Center for Mind and Brain — A virtual reality “helmet” to help high-functioning autistic children interact better in the classroom; and equipment for recording electrical waves in the brain.

• Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science — The new, super-green (LEED Platinum) winery, brewery and
food-processing complex, built entirely with philanthropic dollars.

“I feel — and many others do as well — a deep sense of pride in the gifts I make to UC Davis,” Bacon, the foundation chair, said during the campaign’s public launch.

“The university has already made remarkable contributions in so many fields — I can’t wait to see what UC Davis will accomplish in the years ahead with the help of this campaign.”

UC Davis now receives about 20 percent of its budget from the state, but depends on gift support to supplement this core funding. Private support accounts for less than 7 percent of the university's budget.

Private universities have long employed the comprehensive campaign as a strategy to build fundraising momentum and enthusiasm. Public universities are increasingly relying on the strategy as well.

UC Davis backers for many years have urged the campus to undertake a comprehensive campaign.

"We are eager for UC Davis to take on this bold initiative because we are well aware of this institution's distinguished history of teaching, research and public service, and its great potential to achieve even more in the century ahead," Bacon said.

What philanthropy can do

Margrit Mondavi and Maurice J. Gallagher Jr., two of the university’s most generous benefactors, are the honorary co-chairs of The Campaign for UC Davis.

“I know of the many contributions UC Davis is making in California and across the globe,” Mondavi said. “It is a great university, with impact in many fields. For example, through arts and cultural programs and teaching and research in viticulture and enology, UC Davis is advancing the art of winemaking, is enriching lives and adding joie de vivre. I am proud to be part of this historic campaign.”

In 2001, Mondavi and her husband, Robert, gave $35 million to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and to name the campus’s Center for the Performing Arts. Robert Mondavi died in 2008.

The performing arts center has transformed northern California’s cultural landscape, while the wine and food institute is ushering in a new, more sustainable era of wine, beer and food production worldwide.

In January, Mondavi pledged an additional $2 million to help build a new art museum that will house and display some 4,000 works that the university has collected over the past 40 years, and serve as a teaching and cultural resource for the university and the region.

Gallagher, a 1971 graduate of UC Davis, is chairman and chief executive officer of Allegiant Travel Co., a commercial airline and travel company based in Las Vegas. He and his wife, Marcia, gave $10 million in 2007 to name the new home of the Graduate School of Management — it is in Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall — and to establish an endowment for the Master of Business Administration program. The Gallaghers’ gift amounted to the largest single contribution from an alumnus to the university.

UC Davis’ largest single gift came from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: $100 million in 2007 — during the campaign's quiet phase — to launch a school of nursing. The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, located on the Sacramento campus, admitted its inaugural class this summer.

On the Web

The Campaign for UC Davis

UC Davis: A Vision of Excellence