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Purdue University announced on Monday a five-year, $4 billion fundraising campaign, the largest in the school’s history and its third billion-dollar-plus campaign in less than 25 years.
“As American higher education goes through a transformative time, our university is uniquely positioned for excellence at scale,” President Mung Chiang said in a written statement. “This comprehensive campaign, the third in Purdue’s history, will invest in the long-term future of this most consequential public university in the country.”
Large universities across the nation are upping their fundraising goals to record levels amid competition for top students, faculty and research funds.
In October, the University of Michigan announced a record $7 billion campaign. Last March, the University of California at Berkeley said it had raised $7.37 billion, surpassing its original goal of $6 billion.
Amir Pasic, dean of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said Purdue’s campaign is not unusual, even if it is roughly double the starting goal of the school’s 2015 campaign.
“There have been 120 billion-dollar campaigns in U.S. history, so for an institution with the size, reputation, and commitment to excellence and innovation like Purdue, its campaign ambitions do not seem out of place,” Pasic said in an email.
This campaign follows two large previous fundraising campaigns for Purdue. In an effort announced by then President Martin Jischke, the school raised $1.7 billion from 2002 to 2007. During President Mitch Daniel’s tenure, Purdue raised $2.5 billion from 2015 to 2019.
Purdue said its goal is to raise the $4 billion by early 2030.
Chiang first shared the fundraising campaign, called “Victories & Heroes: Your Campaign for Purdue,” over the weekend at a Purdue for Life Foundation dinner in Naples, Florida.
The school said it has already received commitments for several major gifts, including $30 million from Peter and Ann Lambertus to support the Purdue College of Engineering and an anonymous contribution of $25 million to the School of Mechanical Engineering. A 1967 graduate, Peter Lambertus founded Charles River, a financial services giant.
Purdue said the campaign is designed to help growth of the school’s endowment with a focus on its four strategic initiatives: expansion in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and One Health as well as Purdue athletics and other areas.
The campaign comes amid a time of expansion for the university, including fall 2024 enrollment of 58,009 students on its main West Lafayette campus, up almost 5,800 from the year before.
Purdue said funding for sponsored research was $647 million in fiscal 2024, up from $613 million in the prior year.
The school also said it received a record $621 million in philanthropic support in fiscal 2024 from 85,421 donors.
Purdue said the campaign’s “Victories & Heroes” theme comes from the 1912 lyrics from its fight song, “Hail Purdue.”
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