Although Tufts officially unveiled its newest capital campaign, "Beyond Boundaries," on Friday night, the fundraising has been underway since July 2002.
Already the campaign has raised over $615 million, surpassing the previous campaign's total of $609 million, and comprising more than half of the final goal of $1.2 billion.
The current effort picked up from the end of the last capital campaign in April 2002.
This unprecedented success signals that Tufts coming into its own as a well established and successful university, University Provost Jamshed Bharucha said.
"It is a testament on how strong Tufts has become, that we are able to aspire to $1.2 billion. This puts us in a league with the preeminent institutions in the country [and] in our size group," he said.
Bharucha led a two-year planning process to determine the areas of need in the University to formulate the capital campaign strategy.
"I worked with the deans of all the schools to solicit ideas," he said. "Each school conducted a planning process appropriate for that school."
After schools submitted their respective wishes, officials worked to pare them down and balance different requests based on priority and viability.
"There are always more needs and wishes than we can raise money for... but we need to focus on the things that are the most important," he said.
The schools were also asked to link some of their needs and goals to three university-wide themes: global perspective, active citizenship, and the environment, Bharucha said.
Once schools formulated specific goals, the administration used them in their fundraising efforts.
"One of the things we've tried to do is to be much clearer about priorities," University President Lawrence Bacow said. "[Fundraising] is the intersection of priorities, donor interest, and donor capacity."
In articulating priorities, the campaign hopes to "pique the interest of the donor community" by giving donors the ability to fund specific areas of interest, Bacow said.
For instance, on the Beyond Boundaries website, potential donors can choose to support a specific area or a school instead of donating money to the cause in general.
"We've been working hard to strengthen fundraising," Brian Lee, Vice President of University Advancement, said. "We've reorganized our advancement group."
This included inviting an outside consultant to assist in planning the campaign. "The planning effort has been extremely strong," Lee said. "We've enjoyed the benefit of a well done strategic planning process."
"We have built up a very strong advancement office - added staff since last campaign so that more alumni could be engaged - to support the fundraising process. Compared to previous [campaigns] we have put in significant resources into advancement staff, which is really the best of its kind," Bharucha said.
This campaign has put a much stronger emphasis on alumni relations than in the past. According to Lee, this expands the base of support for the campaign and "creates more fertile ground."
"[We are] much more focused on creating a culture of philanthropy...[and] engaging those who share our values," Lee said.
The majority of funds raised so far have come from alumni, Lee said. This is developing a "strong tradition of one generation helping the next," which will in turn ensure the future success of Tufts.
"Your time here will encourage a lifelong affiliation," Bacow said. "Each generation supports the next."
"The people who have preceeded [current students] on this Hill feel so attached and passionate about Tufts that they are willing to [donate] to enhance this generation and future generations of students," he said.
The campaign has also already benefited from several large gifts during the silent phase, including a $100 million donation from Pierre and Pamela Omidyar (LA '88 and J '89) in Nov. 2005 and $40 million from Jonathon Tisch (LA '76) in May 2006 to endow the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
As a result of these and other gifts, "students are already seeing the benefit of [the campaign]," Bacow said.
The new Sophia Gordon Hall, new professors, the new boat house and increased financial aid for summer school are all among the results of the fundraising efforts so far.
The Omidyars and Tisch, along with trustee and former Clinton fundraiser Alan Solomont (LA '70), are co-chairing the campaign.
James Bologna contributed reporting to this article.
