Administration winds up for launch of five-year capital campaign

This Saturday, Penn will launch the public phase of its five-year capital campaign with a celebration on College Green and a highly anticipated public declaration of financial goals.

In addition to its long-term fundraising goal, the University will also announce the amount that it has already raised in the past two years during the campaign's quiet phase.

And while fundraising is a constant for Penn, running an official capital campaign has a number of benefits.

"It creates a context by which you're going to do your fundraising ... [and] it gives you a specific time frame in which to undertake your activities," Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations John Zeller said. "It causes a rigor in determining what it is you truly need to focus on."

"It helps people see the priorities and strategies of the University very clearly," added Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli. "It creates a momentum where the people can be part of something historic."

For example, a large focus of the capital campaign will be to grow the University's endowment, particularly to benefit student financial aid.

The University hopes to "provide more dollars to continue on the positive trends we've had of making more grant dollars available and reducing the average debt burden to students," Carnaroli said.

Currently, 15 percent of the undergraduate financial-aid budget comes from the endowment, while the rest has to come from Penn's operating budget. With this campaign, officials hope to improve that balance.

The campaign will also finance a number of construction projects across the campus, such as a new college house on Hill field, a new nanotechnology building, athletic facilities and many acres of green space in the postal lands.

Zeller estimated that a total of $850 million to $900 million in construction projects will stem from the capital campaign, with projects ranging in cost from $3 million to $5 million dollars to tens of millions of dollars.

"The campaign is going to support the highest priorities of the University across the campus," Penn President Amy Gutmann said.

These priorities include increasing financial aid for undergraduates and graduate students, improving faculty support and constructing new campus facilities both on campus and on the newly acquired postal lands.

Penn's need for a capital campaign has been discussed since as early as 2001, said Zeller. Since then, the University has used that time to focus its goals and determine Penn's core needs.

Penn also has several non-financial goals associated with its campaign, such as increasing annual giving participation, promoting career networking and developing future alumni leadership for Penn's boards and committees.

"The focus here is to have these non-financial elements because not everybody is prepared to make a gift, and frankly, unless you have people engaged and feeling some ownership and tie to the institution, it's very difficult to secure financial support," Zeller said.

Penn's last capital campaign ended in 1994 and raised a little over $1.4 billion. The current campaign is the fifth in Penn's history.

"It's a very important moment for Penn, both to celebrate what we've become and even more importantly what the great possibilities are for the future," Gutmann said.

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