Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz has launched a public campaign to raise $750 million by 2030, building on the $360 million already secured since a quiet 2020 kickoff to support student programs, scholarships, research and new facilities. University leaders say the effort, driven by gifts from more than 42,000 donors, comes at a crucial moment as philanthropic support helps sustain academic initiatives amid its structural deficit and disruptions to federal funding.
UC Santa Cruz announced a campaign this week to raise $750 million by 2030 to support a wide range of initiatives, such as student research trips, full-ride scholarships and new facilities like a lab for Film and Digital Media Department students.
UCSC officials quietly launched the campaign in 2020 and so far have raised nearly half of their goal, or more than $360 million, from 42,000 donors. This is UCSC’s second campaign ever, after raising $335 million at the conclusion of its first one in 2017.
Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Mark Delos Reyes Davis, who has been a leading organizer for this fundraising drive, told Lookout that a good example of how these donations go toward students is a program that financially supports hands-on experiences related to their degrees, like paying for an internship at a nonprofit or in a lab. The initiative, the Degree-Defining Experiences Program, was established through a $1 million donation from the Helen and Will Webster Foundation and supported 2,300 students in its first year since launching last fall.
“These moments can start a spark in a student who never thought they could pursue a scientific path or a path in the arts,” he said.
Davis said that while this fundraising doesn’t go toward addressing the university’s ongoing structural deficit, which started in 2020, he emphasized that this is the right time for donors to help bolster the university’s mission “because the university needs the resources more than ever.” Officials project an $80 million deficit this current fiscal year.
“Philanthropy is designed, especially in higher education, to further the aspirations of the institution,” he said. “So the majority of philanthropy that happens is additive, trying to support the institution. Going forward, there are certainly opportunities where philanthropy can kind of help a program that maybe needs additional funding.”
The donation from the Helen and Will Webster Foundation toward the Degree-Defining Experiences Program is just one of many examples of the kind of support and student impact that have already come from the campaign. Davis added that any gift that the university has received since the launch in 2020 has been directed toward the campaign. For example, gifts previously announced by the campus, such as the donation of Strathearn Ranch valued at $7 to 10 million, and the $22.2 million donation for full-ride scholarships from the late Richard “Rick” Sabatte, are counted in this effort.
After launching last fall, the Sabatte scholarship will award 30 to 50 students the scholarship each year for the next 30 years. Strathearn Ranch, a 2,400-acre property outside of Hollister, is used for research, outdoor classroom space and hands-on learning experiences. The ranch was donated last year.
Davis said the support has come from individual donors, alumni, friends of UCSC, private foundations and some corporate supporters. For example, on the university’s annual Giving Day on Nov. 6, UCSC raised nearly $2 million from more than 8,000 donors, with gifts ranging from $5 to several thousand dollars.
Davis said in addition to donations toward these programs, donors have gifted property and money toward scholarships. Donors have also supported research that had lost critical federal funding this past year. Previously, UCSC officials told Lookout that after the federal government terminated a National Institutes of Health project focused on pediatric tumor diagnostics, philanthropic funding kept the research going.
“We have donors who have stepped up when there have been federal reductions in grants,” said Davis. “This is a time we hope people will stand up for the [University of California] and stand up for UC Santa Cruz in a moment where the institution needs it.”
During the campaign that wrapped up in 2017, about 43% of the total, or $143 million, went toward programs and financial support for students; nearly 39%, $130 million, went to faculty and research programs; about 13%, or $42 million, went toward campus improvements; and 5%, or $18 million, was for the school to spend at its discretion.
The funds went toward student scholarships, creating a new graduate program in coastal science and policy, establishing 16 new faculty chairs (nearly doubling the total at the time), renovating the Quarry Amphitheater and rebuilding the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn, among other initiatives.
Faculty chairs lead their departments, guiding teaching and recruiting faculty. Davis said the university hasn’t yet announced how many faculty chairs will be established from the campaign.
“We haven’t publicly said the number of faculty chairs that we would like to have, but it would probably be very similar,” he said. “We very much hope that we could do something like that, double the number of faculty chairs, but we have not publicly said that that’s part of the goal at the moment, but it’s certainly part of the conversations.”
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