Columbia’s long-term vitality depends fundamentally on the financial resources and physical space needed to support talented students and faculty. With net assets of nearly $8 billion in 2006, Columbia is growing at an extraordinary rate. With strong management and generous support from engaged alumni and other donors, the University’s endowment grew from $4.343 billion in fiscal year 2002-2003 to $7.15 billion in 2006-2007. Investment returns over the past five years were 16% and in FY'07 they topped 23%.
The Columbia Campaign, launched in the fall of 2006 as the first-ever $4-billion university campaign, is by far the most ambitious such effort in the University’s history. It is currently well ahead of schedule, with more than $2.5 billion in gifts in place by the end of 2007, including transformative gifts and pledges toward a stronger faculty, improved student financial aid, and new facilities for teaching and research on all campuses. Broad participation at all gift levels is itself a distinct campaign goal; and Columbia’s schools are, as a rule, seeing more gifts from more donors than ever before.
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The Columbia Campaign is the most ambitious fundraising initiative in the University’s history.
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Columbia University continues to strengthen its management and organizational capacity.
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Along with outreach to New York neighbors and educational partners around the globe, Columbia has focused anew on building connections among more than a quarter-million alumni worldwide. Through programs sponsored by each of sixteen schools and by the University-wide Columbia Alumni Association (CAA), and through a growing suite of online resources, graduates are an engaged and vital part of Columbia’s international community.
Drawing together alumni of all Columbia schools was a key inspiration for Columbia 250, a year-long celebration beginning October 2003 that fostered new publications on Columbia’s proud legacy of teaching and discovery, a new monthly e-newsletter, and high-profile events on campus, around the United States, and with alumni in Europe and Asia.
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