UB posts most successful fundraising year in university history

UB’s fundraising total for fiscal year 2023 surpassed the $120 million mark for the first time in university history, President Satish K. Tripathi announced on Wednesday.

“I am enormously grateful to our alumni, friends and partners for their meaningful investment in UB’s mission of excellence,” Tripathi said. “While reaching this milestone is significant, we are most excited about the profound impact these philanthropic gifts are having on UB’s transformative education, our research innovations and breakthroughs, and our ability to contribute our disciplinary expertise and discoveries to the greater good.”

In the fiscal year that ran from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023, 15,458 individuals and institutions contributed or pledged $123,018,958 in support of the university and its students.

Among the many significant commitments that UB received this year was a $5 million gift from the Bruner Foundation to establish the Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence in the School of Architecture and Planning. This new center, which will launch this fall, will serve as a living resource and tool for research, scholarship and practice related to urban development and the process of enabling beautiful, just and resilient places.

SUNY Distinguished Professor Timothy Murphy and his wife, Vicki, made a $500,000 pledge to create an endowment to fund pilot studies in the Community Health Equity Research Institute, where Murphy serves as director, and to provide scholarship opportunities in mental health nursing in the School of Nursing, from which Vicki is a graduate.

The university broke ground on the Brittany Murchie Mulla Sports Performance Center thanks to another commitment from long-time supporters and UB graduates Tunney and Deanna Murchie. The center, which is slated to open in 2024, will expand UB Athletics state-of the-art training space.

This year, the Graduate School of Education also secured a pledge for its first endowed faculty position, a role that will enhance the school’s highly regarded research outcomes through the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention.

Additionally, UB received more than $13 million in scholarship and fellowship support this year, including a gift from School of Management alumnus Ron C. Hamilton to establish a HOPE fellowship for MBA students from underrepresented communities who are following a leadership track.

“Our UB alumni, donors and friends have shown their generosity and commitment to the university not just this year, but throughout our comprehensive Boldly Buffalo campaign,” said Jason Diffenderfer, vice president for university advancement. “We look forward to working with other donors who want to support the incredible work that UB is doing in the community and around the world.”

Diffenderfer pointed to newly announced efforts, including the New York State Endowment Match Program, and the SUNY Impact Foundation New York State tax credit program, as big incentives for donors to continue their support of UB this year.

This challenge program will help donors who support endowed funds at UB unlock additional dollars from the state that will support UB students, faculty and research. And the tax credit program allows individuals who have a tax liability in New York State to receive substantial credits on state and federal taxes when making a gift between $10,000 and $100,000 to UB through the SUNY Impact Foundation.

“In addition to historic fundraising outcomes, we’ve also grown the number of alumni who are engaged with the university over the last year,” said Diffenderfer, adding that key to UB’s goals is building strong bonds and connections with the university’s nearly 300,000 alumni worldwide.

“The engagement of our alumni and donors supports UB as a leader in interdisciplinary education, as a world-class destination for education and research excellence, and as a diverse, inclusive, equitable, scholarly community dedicated to serving the region and the world,” he noted.