UNC Charlotte wants $500M from largest ever fundraising campaign. How will they spend it?
UNC Charlotte this week launched a four-year, $500 million fundraising campaign — the largest in its history. Leaders say it’s critical for the school’s continued growth.
The “For the Love of Charlotte” Campaign is intended to bolster three main areas: student resources and financial aid, research and community engagement. That will look like increasing support and scholarship dollars for students, hiring faculty and upgrading arts and athletic facilities.
The money also will pad the university’s endowment, which was about $303 million as of December 2022. It’s smaller than the endowment at some other UNC system campuses, including UNC Greensboro, which has around 11,000 fewer students than UNC Charlotte.
“Our endowment isn’t really where it needs to be,” said UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber. “What that means is we don’t have as much money to be able to do scholarships or grants for student emergencies or help with hiring distinguished faculty, that sort of thing. We need to make sure that we grow the private philanthropy to be able to help do all of the things that the state or tuition doesn’t pay for.”
The school began quietly fundraising for the campaign in 2020 and raised the first $250 million. UNC Charlotte already has expense-specific plans for some of that cash, including two new professor positions in its Klein College of Science.
Gaber says she doesn’t want to wait until the campaign is over in 2029 to start using the money.
“For us, it’s about how we help this community. For businesses coming here, they want to know what the talent pipeline looks like, and we have 9,000 students graduating every year,” Gaber said.
The $250 million was pledged by a combination of donors, including Truist, Bank of America, the Mebane Foundation and Gené and Fred Klein, whom the Klein College of Science is named after.
Financial aid and diversity
A significant portion of the money is intended to bolster resources for students, especially first-generation college students, which comprise 35% of UNC Charlotte’s student body. That includes increasing funding for scholarships.
“As the city grows, as the university grows, what we know is that we need to be able to do more to continue to help our students and make sure that we’re reducing student debt and bringing in top-tier faculty,” Gaber said.
Currently, 70% of UNC Charlotte students receive financial aid. About 37% – or 8,836 students – receive federal Pell grants, which are reserved for students who demonstrate significant financial need. The average Pell-eligible student in 2024 needed $7,153 in federal funding to pay for school on top of financial aid provided by the university.
The university also reached record enrollment this year, with over 31,000 students. Gaber said increasing resources to help students succeed is critical for the school’s continued growth.
When the University of North Carolina System repealed its diversity, equity and inclusion policy in May, UNC Charlotte shuttered three offices and diverted money to “student success and opportunity,” which includes improving graduation rates, degree efficiency and student well-being. It’s also one of the three pillars of the “For the Love of Charlotte” campaign.
Gaber says the fundraising campaign is a way to continue to support the school’s diverse population.
“What we know is our students are diverse, so we have to make sure we are supporting our students, we are creating a sense of belonging, we are having mentorship opportunities,” she said. “We’re not doing it with an office. We’re doing it across our campus with our faculty and our staff and our alums, and we have to make sure that our students come, find their community and are engaged.”
Research and faculty
The campaign will increase research funding and go toward recruiting additional faculty. It will also fund new academic innovations, such as exploring the use of artificial intelligence.
Gaber says this includes hiring more faculty and potentially opening an artificial intelligence center on-campus.
Earlier this year, UNC Charlotte announced it’s on-track to reach “R1” status in 2025, meaning it will rank in the top rung of research institutions in the country, according to the Carnegie Classification.
The rating, despite not originally being intended for public use, is now used to determine prestige, attract funding and faculty. It also informs government policy, and legislators use it to determine appropriations.
The designation could help further bolster the university’s national reputation and ability to attract top faculty and students. That, in combination with record-setting enrollment and a good economy made this the right time for the campaign, said Dontá Wilson, a campaign chair and UNC Charlotte alumnus.
“We’ve been able to raise $250 million, so we’ve been able to see that the community really loves Charlotte and loves UNC Charlotte and values the things that we continue to do,” he said. “Having those proof points of success matters.”
Facilities and community
The third component of the campaign will involve upgrading facilities and programs that are community-facing such as arts and athletics.
Projects will include expansion of Jerry Richardson Stadium, addition of the Robert & Mariam Hayes Stadium Clubhouse, construction of a new soccer and lacrosse stadium and renovations to the men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms.
“It’s really about community and civic engagement,” Gaber said. “Things like athletics, things like our theater department, our music department, our dance program, our arts, things that reach into the community.”
It will also include a new entrepreneurial hub at the school’s center city campus. The new hub, called CO-LAB, is intended to provide a space where entrepreneurs and innovators can work with university experts as part of the broader North Tryon Tech Hub.
“The school and the city are so amazingly linked,” Wilson said. “As goes UNC Charlotte, so goes Charlotte.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
