UC San Diego Raises $148.3 Million in Private Support

Donors designated 55 percent of gifts to research

The University of California, San Diego—recognized as one of the top 15 research universities worldwide—raised $148.3 million in private support in fiscal year 2013-2014. Nearly 30,000 donors helped to fund UC San Diego’s strategic plan commitment to being a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution that provides opportunity for all.

“As a public university, UC San Diego owes it to society to give back, to educate our next-generation leaders, to discover new knowledge, create new technologies and drive economic development,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “But increasingly, we must rely on private support to continue our impact on the community and the world.”

Nearly $92 million was from charitable gifts, with another $56 million from private grants. Donors designated $81.8 million or 55 percent of the total for research; other purposes, including capital, accounted for the remaining $66.5 million. Of the total support, $80.2 million was designated to benefit UC San Diego’s Health Sciences and $68.1 million was for the general campus and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

More than 1,200 donors contributed $131 million to the Jacobs Medical Center. Included in the total are gifts that matched an anonymous donation of $25 million, meeting the Challenge goal of the initiative. Businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford committed $100 million for the creation of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center ($3 million of which is included in private support). An anonymous donor created the Richard C. Atkinson Laboratory for Regenerative Ophthalmology at the Shiley Eye Center with a $6.5 million commitment ($500,000 of which is included in private support).

Endowed gifts totaled $12.6 million, including a $2 million bequest from the late Professor Emeritus Devendra Lal to create an endowed fund for academic excellence at Scripps Oceanography, over $2 million from an anonymous donor for surgical breast health and a $1 million endowed gift from Carol Lazier and Family to establish a center and endowed chair focused on social innovation at the Rady School of Management. UC San Diego alumni Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom, co-founder of Cymer, Inc., committed an endowed gift of $1.2 million to support graduate students in the Jacobs School of Engineering and undergraduates through the Chancellor’s Associates Scholars program.

Following is a sampling of the other generous donors who provided support through leadership and legacy gifts and grants:

• $7.5 million in grants from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to support Moores Cancer Center, Biological Sciences and Cellular and Molecular Medicine;
• $3.8 million in grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support Family and Preventative Medicine and the Qualcomm Institute;
• $3 million pledge from the Gordon Foundation to fund the Bernard and Sophia Gordon Engineering Leadership Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering;
• $2.6 million in grants from the American Heart Association to support research in Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering, Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences;
• $1.9 million gift in kind for the papers of noted physician, virologist and humanitarian Jonas Salk, donated by his sons, Peter, Darrell and Jonathan;
• $1.1 million in grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York Foundation to the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation; and
• $500,000 pledged by San Diego Chargers chairman and president Dean Spanos to support a new Athletic Performance Center.