Create the Future: The Wisconsin Campaign to raise $1.5 billion

The University of Wisconsin Foundation launched Oct. 10 the public phase of “Create the Future: The Wisconsin Campaign,” the most ambitious fund-raising effort in the history of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Festivities are marking the beginning of the public phase of this $1.5 billion campaign. In an unprecedented gathering, boards of visitors, made up of alumni and friends representing nearly every school, college and major program on campus, are gathering for a campaign summit at the Memorial Union at UW–Madison. Campus leaders and volunteers are defining their roles in the campaign and learning more about its goals. An evening reception and dinner at Monona Terrace Convention Center will celebrate the transforming impact of the UW, with noted alumni and friends sharing their stories of how the university has changed their lives.

Following the campaign launch, regional events will be held throughout the United States and abroad to celebrate the past, catch up with the present and consider the future of the university.

Scheduled to run through the end of 2006, the campaign seeks to build on the success and strength of the UW. From advances in stem cell research to new strategies in athletic competition, achievements of the past decade have given the UW–Madison new intensity and a renewed sense of confidence.

“Clearly, the UW is as strong as it has ever been,” says Chancellor John D. Wiley. “At no time in the university’s history has there been such extraordinary opportunity for achievement and progress.”

The UW Foundation is working closely with Wiley, and deans and directors of the schools, colleges and other program units to identify individual opportunities and campuswide projects. The campaign will incorporate current fund-raising efforts for HealthStar and BioStar, as well as proposed redevelopment of the east campus.

This capital campaign invites those who care about the UW to invest in its future and, in turn, contribute to worldwide benefit as the university applies its resources to find answers to society’s most critical problems. The campaign will provide opportunities for friends and alumni to support faculty chairs and professorships, help recruit and retain top teachers and researchers, and provide scholarship and fellowship support for undergraduate and graduate students to help ease financial strain.

“Never before has the university been stronger or better positioned to provide a donor with an outstanding return on his or her philanthropic investment,” says Andrew “Sandy” Wilcox, UW Foundation president. “Prior campaigns appealed for help to meet needs. ‘Create the Future: The Wisconsin Campaign’ offers our donors a wealth of opportunities to build on the university’s position of success and strength.”

Wade Fetzer III and Paul J. Collins are co-chairs of the campaign. Fetzer, a 1959 UW graduate, is a limited partner with Goldman Sachs & Co. Collins, who graduated from the UW in 1958, retired as vice chair of Citigroup in 2000. Both are members of the UW Foundation board of directors.

The UW Foundation is the official fund-raising and gift-receiving organization for the UW–Madison.

For more information about the campaign, including instructions on how to give, background on previous donors, media kits and other campaign news, visit http://www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu.