U. campaign nearing $1.3 billion target

Needs $54 million for goal The University's magic number is $54 million. That's how much the five-year "Campaign for Penn" fundraising effort needs to reach its $1.3 billion goal, Trustees Chairman Alvin Shoemaker reported at last week's stated meeting of the University Board of Trustees. Reaching $1.246 billion at the end of 1993, the campaign is close to its second goal of $1.3 billion, which the Trustees hope will be met by year's end. The original target of $1 billon was exceeded last June, one and a half years ahead of schedule. Although the campaign is close to its $1.3 billion goal, Executive Vice President Janet Hale cautioned against premature optimism. "While we have exceeded the overall number, we have not met some of our subgoals," Hale said last night. Those subgoals, which include funds for minority permanence, undergraduate financial aid and endowed chairs, have yet to realize their full goals. Even so, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Virginia Clark says donors have already endowed a record-breaking 137 endowed chairs, surpassing the 104 chairs funded in a recent drive by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. To completely endow a chair, donors must pledge at least $1.25 million, and in some cases up to $2 million. The campaign's five-year goal is to endow 150 chairs. Despite the overall successes of the campaign, it still remains $6 million short of its stated $35 million goal to fund minority permanence. Clark said previous University campaigns have not been nearly as lucrative as this one, calling the "Campaign for Penn" a "quantum leap" over all the others. At the end of the 1970s, the University's "Program for the Eighties" raised only $255 million. And in the 1960s, the University raised only $100 million in its capital campaign. Billionaire philanthropist Walter Annenberg's $120 million gift to the Annenberg School for Communication this summer, which is included in the campaign, was "a wonderful shot in the arm," Clark said. At a time when the University is cutting departments and nursing a $2 million deficit, though, Clark emphasized that the donations made to the capital campaign are not just given to the provost and president "for unrestricted use." She said donors work closely with the development office, matching "University priorities" with donors' wishes. "Donors may say they've had a wonderful experience in engineering, for example, and they want to support it." Clark said she hopes the campaign's goal will be raised again before the drive ends. "But let's get to the $1.3 billion first," she added.