UC Berkeley has a long tradition of fundraising that has included success generating transformational gifts from exceptionally generous individuals, having engaged some of California’s most prominent givers over its 150 year history. These families, among other donors, have been very well stewarded by a Principal Giving office, and donor relationships with the campus are warm, deep, and strong. However, in our last comprehensive capital campaign (The Campaign for Berkeley, which raised $3.13B), Berkeley only closed one nine-figure gift, and peer benchmarking showed that we were underperforming in this area relative to our private university peer group.
Additionally, in response to areas of emerging and unique strengths, the campus identified several areas of research that could be amplified to great effect with a strategic, multi-disciplinary focus, academic leadership support, and private giving. Ultimately four strategic initiatives were launched, and a Strategic Initiatives fundraising team was created to support them. This team was highly skilled at creating innovative gift opportunities and engaging non-alumni at the highest levels. Berkeley was right that these ideas could attract significant philanthropy, and the dedicated fundraising staff became almost entirely focused on engagements with principal gift prospects.
To position Berkeley for success in its current $6 billion campaign, these two teams were merged in 2019 to fully leverage the unique skills each team had honed. The new Principal Gifts and Strategic Initiatives team is already having demonstrable impact.
