Loyal supporters give an astonishing $562 million to the University of Florida in FY’21

The University of Florida raised an all-time record $562 million last fiscal year, as the university nears the end of its eight-year Go Greater campaign. The more than 176,000 gifts UF received in FY’21 from alumni and friends will enable the university to continue its climb as one of the nation’s best public universities. It marks the third consecutive year that giving has surpassed $500 million.

With just over one year remaining in UF’s comprehensive Go Greater campaign, the university has now exceeded its initial $3 billion goal, with $3.2 billion raised for students and faculty as well as programs, projects, and research that serve Floridians and others across the globe. Go Greater, the fourth campaign in the university’s 168-year history, is scheduled to conclude in fall 2022.

Robust support during the campaign is a major factor in UF’s rise to No. 6 in U.S. News and World Report’s latest annual rankings of public universities — a jump of several spots from when Go Greater launched in 2015.

“I am immensely grateful to our alumni and friends for their unceasing generosity, which has kept UF on a path to excellence that few other universities have matched,” said Kent Fuchs, UF’s president. “Thanks to their support, UF will achieve its highest goals while advancing education and scholarship that increases human knowledge, spurs positive change and helps people live healthier, more fulfilling lives.”

Among last year’s gifts are 27,000 acres of pristine land in Osceola County; a large bequest to UF Law from the college’s namesake, Fred Levin; 1,200 works of Florida-themed art to the Harn Museum of Art; and more than $25 million in gifts during UF’s 24-hour “Stand Up and Holler” Giving Day event.

• Elisabeth DeLuca’s gift of rural property near Yeehaw Junction will be used to protect one of the last natural areas of its kind and serve as a living classroom and laboratory for IFAS and other UF units. It is among the largest gifts of real estate ever to any university in the nation, and includes cattle ranchlands, a citrus grove, ponds and forests.

• Samuel and Roberta Vickers’ extensive collection of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and books is the largest single art compilation ever donated to the university. The collection includes works by celebrated artists such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Martin Johnson Heade and Thomas Moran.

• Fred Levin’s bequest brings three generations of the Levin family’s total commitments to the university to more than $60 million, the bulk of it to support students and professors at UF Law. Levin, who passed away in January, gave the College of Law’s naming gift in 1999, and for decades afterward continued contributing millions for scholarships, professorships and programs.

• Nationwide Insurance Co.’s former Gainesville office complex became home to UF Health’s medical team. The 206,238-square-foot building south of UF’s main campus will eventually house as many as 800 employees, making vacated on-campus offices available for doctors, scientists and nurses.

• Thousands of alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends contributed $25.4 million during UF’s third annual “Stand Up and Holler: Gator Nation Giving Day” in February. The 22,198 individual gifts are the most ever in a 24-hour period. Gators in states stretching from Hawaii and Alaska to Maine and Florida and in 21 countries participated in this year’s event.

Two other fundraising measures — alumni participation and endowment growth — also had marked improvements this fiscal year. 19% of alumni – nearly one in five – made a contribution to the university during the past 12 months. This percentage ranks UF amongst the nation’s best public universities for alumni giving. UF’s endowment, meanwhile, has grown to $2.29 billion, generating almost $70 million annually for education and discovery.

“A hundred years from now, historians will point to this moment in the life of UF as the springboard to all the breathtaking accomplishments that occur forever after: cures to diseases; solutions for a warming climate; the exploration of seas and space and worlds seen under a microscope; a new entrepreneurial spirit; art and music and theater that bring joy to lives,” predicted Anita Zucker, chair of the UF Foundation’s executive board. “And it’s these wonderful people — Gators who may never see the fruit borne of their investments — who future generations will thank.”

The University of Florida, the state’s flagship university, serves more than 56,000 students from throughout the United States and many other countries. With five professional schools and 200 research, service and education centers, bureaus and institutes on a single 2,000-acre campus, UF offers educational opportunities matched by only seven universities worldwide. UF is currently ranked No. 6 on U.S. News and World Report’s annual list of best public universities.