UC Berkeley announced a campaign plan last week to raise $3 billion in donations by 2013.
Calling on alumni, parents and friends of the university to contribute, the “quiet phase” of the Campaign for Berkeley, which began June 30, has already raised more than $1.3 billion in donations and pledges.
The announcement accompanies the end of a record-breaking fundraising year for the university, which acquired over $409.3 million in gifts and donations.
The funds will be used to attract and maintain top faculty, expand student scholarship opportunities and support research ventures.
The funds will also allow Berkeley to close the funding gap that exists between itself and first-rate private schools with much larger annual endowments and alumni donations.
“The Campaign for Berkeley calls upon every member of the Cal family to stand together to renew and extend UC Berkeley’s academic pre-eminence and global leadership,” Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau said in a statement. “Grand aspirations, rooted in a frontier past, built this university 140 years ago; grand actions today will secure our legacy of access and excellence in the future.”