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The largest donation of the $625 million total came courtesy of a $50 million gift from Roy and Diana Vagelos. Credit: Son Nguyen

Penn raised more than all other colleges in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey in the fiscal year 2019, The Philadelphia Business Journal reported.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education analyzed the amount of donations made to 37 colleges, reporting that Penn raised more than $626 million. Penn's number surpassed the combined total of $592.7 million raised by the other 36 schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, The Philadelphia Business Journal reported. Penn raised six times more than the second-highest fundraiser, Thomas Jefferson University, which raised approximately $93 million.

Penn received several multimillion dollar donations in the fiscal year, including $125 million to Penn Law in November, the largest donation to any law school, and $50 million gift from Roy and Diana Vagelos in April, which set the record for the biggest donation in the history of the School of Arts & Sciences. Roy and Diana Vagelos have previously donated to fund the VIPER Program and the Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Their most recent donation will help fund the construction of a new science research building next to David Rittenhouse Laboratory focusing on energy research, which will be named after them.

Additional contributions also included an anonymous $30 million donation to hire new faculty specializing in energy policy and support programming at Penn’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.  Penn also received a $25 million donation from the AKO Foundation which will fund the construction of The Wharton School's Tangen Hall, Penn’s first on-campus space dedicated to student entrepreneurship. Tangen Hall is slated to open in fall 2020.

The AKO Foundation's donation also funds a scholarship to provide financial aid to international undergraduate students. Penn does not apply its need-blind admissions policy to international students, whose chances of acceptance can be hurt if they apply for financial aid.