U.: Latest funds drive on track

But efforts to increase Penn's relatively small financial aid endowment have been less successful. Fundraising efforts by Penn officials have yielded more than $400 million in donations for the University's highly-touted Agenda for Excellence, Penn President Judith Rodin said this week, adding that the drive has thus far been a success. The capital campaign for the University's academic strategic plan, introduced in 1995, has brought in $411 million since July 1, 1996, when fundraising for the project officially began. Administrators hope to raise about $1.5 billion by the end of fiscal year 2003. Undergraduate financial aid, academic programs and campus facilities -- from a soon-to-be-constructed Wharton School building to new facilities for the Biology Department -- have received the bulk of the Agenda donations to date, although the financial aid efforts have thus far fallen far short of their goals. The Agenda, which encompasses such disparate initiatives as the Perelman Quadrangle project, the college house system and the University's new program in cognitive neuroscience, comprises nine overarching goals and six academic priorities aimed at positioning Penn as a competitive, high-tech campus for the 21st century. "This is a very unusual type of fundraising for an institution like Penn," Rodin said. "This is not a campaign. It's very focused on the strategic plan." Penn has actually raised a total of $683 million over the last 2 1/4 years, with about 60 percent of that money going to Agenda items. The other 40 percent of that went to non-Agenda items, such as private grants to faculty members, the Morris Arboretum and the Institute for Contemporary Art. About $55 million of Agenda money was brought in in the first three months of the 1999 fiscal year, which began July 1, 1998, according to Bonnie Devlin, the development official in charge of Agenda fundraising. The University has set $300 million as its goal for this year. Devlin said that she expects more money to roll in from this quarter, which ends December 31, as potential donors look for end-of-the-year tax breaks. "December is a huge month for us," she said, adding that contributions also peak in May and June when alumni come to campus for reunions. Most of the money thus far has gone to a number of widely publicized campus initiatives. Academic programs have received $75 million so far, including $10 million from 1962 Wharton MBA Robert Goergen, chairperson and chief executive officer of candle maker Blyth Industries, to fund the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program. This sector also includes $10 million for cancer research from health-care tycoon Leonard Abramson and his wife Madlyn, which was part of a larger $100 million pledge, most of which has yet to be disbursed. The $79 million for academic facilities is led by dual $10 million gifts from the family of Taiwanese industrialist C.F. Koo and the Salim Group, both of will help finance the new $120 million Wharton building scheduled for completion in 2001. The Dental and Law schools have also benefited from multi-million donations to improve their facilities. But as for undergraduate financial aid -- which Rodin has often cited as Penn's top fundraising priority -- the University has so far amassed only $55 million, far from its goal of $200 million. "One of the chief goals was undergraduate financial aid and that's going well," University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos said. "But there's still a long way to go." "We need to continue to raise extraordinary amounts of money for scholarship endowments," Devlin said, noting that Penn can only fund 5 percent of its $50-million-plus aid budget with named scholarships. Administrators hope to fund financial aid and the rest of the Agenda projects primarily through large-scale donations. Devlin said Penn hopes to raise about $1.1 billion from gifts of $1 million or more. Over the course of the campaign, according to Devlin, Penn hopes to receive two gifts in the $100 million range, two of $40 million, three of $25 million, 20 of about $10 million and 30 of $5 million. So far only 13 gifts of $5 million or more have been collected -- for a total of $277.8 million -- including the Abramson gift, over which the University does not have direct control. Devlin also said Penn expects to receive 125 gifts of $2 million each -- the cost of an endowed professor's chair -- and 110 gifts of $1 million. "A relatively small group of people, probably 400 donors, will be responsible for the lion's share of the gifts," Devlin said. She noted that in philanthropic circles, the rule of thumb is that 90 percent of the donations come from only 10 percent of the donors. Rodin said donors have been enthusiastic about the Agenda, which differs from normal capital campaigns in that it provides prospective gift-givers with a set idea of where there money will be going. And Vagelos said alumni have been particularly receptive to the fundraising requests disseminated by Rodin and the volunteers on the Agenda for Excellence Council, a group of Penn alumni and parents who are helping with the fundraising. "The people see the changes at the University and they like it," he said.