Pitt reaches benchmark in capital campaign

Pitt marked a big fundraising milestone on Thursday.

The University has raised more than $1.5… Pitt marked a big fundraising milestone on Thursday.

The University has raised more than $1.5 billion as part of its capital campaign since the campaign began almost 15 years ago. The Board of Trustees raised its goal to $2 billion in 2002, but it did not set a final deadline for achieving the total, said Pitt spokesman John Fedele.

Fedele said the campaign, called “Building Our Future Together,” has been the administration’s most prolific project of the past several years.

Much of the funds go into Pitt’s various endowments, which are the largest of any public university’s in Pennsylvania, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Albert Novak, Pitt’s vice chancellor for institutional advancement, said he’s optimistic about the fundraising goal, but the state of the economy makes him uncertain about how soon Pitt will reach the $2 billion mark.

“We’re confident that we’ll wrap this up in the coming years,” Novak said.

Novak said that one of the campaign’s main goals is to increase financial aid for Pitt students.

Pitt endowed 458 scholarships from campaign funds since the program’s inception, adding to a total of nearly 900 funded by the University.

In addition, Pitt used some of the money to add 109 faculty positions over the past 15 years. Novak said those positions have been very important for maintaining the quality of a Pitt education.

“There is no better way of recognizing your great faculty,” Novak said. “It’s how you keep your best and brightest.”

More than 158,000 donors have contributed to the fund, and more than 235 have contributed more than $1 million each, Novak said.

Together the $1 million-plus donors account for almost $1 billion of the capital campaign funds. The remaining 157,000 together contributed more than $500 million.

“Every one of them counts,” Novak said. “They add up.”