After seven years of widespread support and alumni participation, the University of Pennsylvania culminated its Making History Campaign, raising $4.3 billion, strengthening Penn’s position among the world’s foremost universities and making major breakthroughs in addressing society’s most complex challenges, Penn President Amy Gutmann announced today.

Designed to integrate fields of study with high social impact, add state-of-the-art new facilities, attract and retain exceptional faculty and increase student aid and alumni engagement, the Campaign far exceeded expectations on each of these fronts and more.

“When the Penn community comes together for a common purpose, it generates remarkable transformative power,” Gutmann said. “Penn’s undergraduate all-grant, no-loan financial-aid policy and our graduate and professional aid — which doubled over the course of the Campaign — are ensuring educational access to a Penn education for the brightest students regardless of socioeconomic background. One out of seven Penn freshmen today will be the first in their families to graduate college, and a quarter are under-represented minorities. With new state-of-the-art facilities, our eminent faculty is revolutionizing the ways we teach, learn and conduct collaborative research across disciplines. Across the broadest spectrum of the liberal arts and professions, Penn’s capacity and commitment to making a positive difference, at home and across the globe, are unsurpassed. Penn’s campus is also more strikingly beautiful than ever, with our 24-acre Penn Park — once an ugly parking lot and now a home to new athletic and recreational spaces — welcoming everyone into the greenest urban campus in the country.”

Launched in 2007, the Campaign hit its financial target of $3.5 billion 16 months ahead of the Dec. 31, 2012, conclusion. It was an unusually broad-based campaign, attracting gifts from 326,952 donors.

The largest single gift in Penn’s history and the biggest ever to name a medical school in the United States came in 2011 from Raymond G. and the late Ruth Perelman, who gave $225 million to name the Perelman School of Medicine. It provides unrestricted support for scholarship, faculty and research.

The largest cumulative contribution to the Campaign came from the late Honorable Leonore C. Annenberg, through the Annenberg Foundation, totaling more than $286 million and funding a broad range of innovative communication, research and educational outreach programs, in addition to endowed professorships.

Strengthening the University’s eminent faculty and interdisciplinary programs and ensuring Penn’s long-term financial stability were key objectives of the Campaign. Thanks to the $2 billion added to Penn’s research and programmatic development, innovative interdisciplinary programs were created and enhanced. Outright gifts and pledges to the endowment totaled $1.9 billion, surpassing the Campaign’s ambitious $1.75 billion target. Of that $1.9 billion pledged, $1.45 billion has already been received and added to Penn’s endowment. This amount is equal to approximately all cash additions to the endowment in the previous 263-year history of the University.

“The impact of the Making History Campaign on increasing educational access, integrating knowledge across disciplines and putting that knowledge to good work in the world has been nothing short of transformational,” Gutmann said. “The overwhelming response we received is a testament to the strength and confidence of our community. People participated because Penn’s work resonates with them and what they are passionate about. We wish to thank everyone who made this achievement possible — our alumni, parents, donors, volunteers and most especially our Board of Trustees and Campaign leadership.”

The effort was led by George A. Weiss, Campaign chair; Co-chairs Robert M. Levy, Rosemary Mazanet, Andrea Mitchell and the late Christopher H. Browne and Henry A. Jordan; and Lee Spelman Doty, president of Penn Alumni.

Opening Educational Doors: Expanding Student Financial Aid

Donors contributed $652 million toward financial aid for undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

“Penn alumni and friends rallied around the priority of increasing financial aid,” Weiss said. “It speaks volumes about the Penn experience that they care so deeply about making a Penn education maximally affordable for the next generation.”

Campaign support has already resulted in a more socioeconomically diverse student body. This year, 14 percent of incoming freshmen are the first in their families to attend college. Nearly half of Penn underclassmen receive aid, a number that rose by 10 percentage points in the last seven years. Currently 22 percent of the financial-aid budget is financed through endowed scholarships, up from about 10 percent prior to the Campaign.

The Campaign also resulted in the doubling of scholarships and fellowships for graduate and professional students. Representing half of Penn’s student body, these superb scholars are Penn’s future educators and researchers. By adding new scholarship and fellowship programs, Penn provides professional and graduate students with far greater financial freedom to pursue their studies without burdensome debt, which could skew their future career choices.

“Increasing access for talented students regardless of their financial means is a key University priority,” Weiss said. “With our all-grant, no-loan policy, Penn is changing lives and investing in a stronger future, not just for our students but for society as a whole.”

Recruiting and Retaining a World-Class Faculty and Staff

A total of $573 million was raised for faculty, director, coach and curator positions, strengthening the University’s ability to recruit and retain the most talented scholars, teachers and professionals. Support in this category was one of the core goals of the Campaign and a common priority across all of Penn’s 18 schools and centers. The Campaign added 161 newly endowed faculty positions to Penn.

A centerpiece of Penn’s leadership in breaking down the barriers to integrating knowledge and maximizing the social impact of research was the creation of a unique University-wide program: the Penn Integrates Knowledge University professorships. Each PIK professor is a renowned scholar and teacher who holds a joint faculty appointment across two schools and who exemplifies Penn’s interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to research and teaching. Fourteen PIK professors with joint appointments in seven of Penn’s schools — the Annenberg School for Communication, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, Law, the Perelman School of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Wharton — are already having a major impact on Penn’s campus and beyond.

The Campaign created 22 new PIK professorships. The Campaign also endowed 16 positions for coaches, curators and center directors.

Expanding a Green Urban Campus: Buildings and Facilities

Nowhere is the impact of the Campaign more noticeable than on the physical landscape of the campus itself.

“The Campaign has enabled us to transform Penn,” said David L. Cohen, chair of the Board of Trustees, “with new spaces that promote collaboration, more green space that supports our commitment to sustainability, state-of-the-art building and research laboratories to foster discovery and athletic and recreational facilities that enhance the Penn experience.”

Funds raised for Penn Medicine, more than 30 percent of the Campaign total, contributed to the development of a state-of-the-art medical campus that is advancing research in medical science and patient care. New facilities include the Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, Roberts Proton Therapy Center and Smilow Center for Translational Research.

The $753 million raised for facilities also include the Law School’s state-of-the-art Golkin Hall; the Vernon and Shirley Hill Pavilion with great research space for the School of Veterinary Medicine; a new building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki for the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which addresses the increasingly important role of communication in public policy; and the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, which will open later this year and light up the eastern gateway to Penn’s campus and integrate pathbreaking nanoscale research in the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and Applied Science.

The most visible addition is Penn Park, a project that increased campus green space by 20 percent and turned 24 acres of parking lots into tree-lined paths and superior athletic facilities, including the Dunning-Cohen Champions’ Field and Seasonal Air Structure, James “Ace” Adams Field, the 12-court Lynn and Clay Hamlin Outdoor Tennis Center, a multipurpose stadium and picnic areas on the western bank of the Schuylkill River.

Notable renovations and additions to existing buildings include an expanded Music Building featuring acoustically-isolated classrooms, offices, practice rooms and recording studios; the George A. Weiss Pavilion and Robert A. Fox Fitness Center in Franklin Field; the newly opened Syngcuk Kim Endodontic Clinic in Penn Dental’s Evans Building; the Special Collections Center, home to Penn’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library; improvements to the Nursing School’s Claire M. Fagin Hall; and a major overhaul of the Arts and Culture Research House, the ARCH, currently underway to enhance undergraduate student life.

Forthcoming Campaign-supported projects include the Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building, which will house laboratories, classrooms and interactive spaces designed to foster collaboration across the various fields that encompass the life sciences; and the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, a new centrally-located home for two of the most popular undergraduate majors.

True to Penn’s leadership in creating an environmentally sustainable campus, every new building made possible by the Campaign has been designed to be “green” and to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, sustainability standards.

Extending Penn’s Reach, Locally and Globally

Campaign funds have strengthened Penn’s connections to its Philadelphia neighborhoods, initiating new ways to serve its community. The endowment of the University’s Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships has enabled the Center to expand its service programs that enhance quality of life in the city, intertwine the future of Penn and West Philadelphia and serve as a national model of university-community collaboration. The Robert A. Fox Leadership Program educates students to be leaders in public service though leadership-focused courses and leadership-building experiences on Penn’s campus and across the country. Netter and Fox exemplify the many ways that Penn increasingly serves as a learning lab for local civic engagement, involving thousands of Penn’s faculty, students and staff.

Fueled by Campaign contributions, Penn’s global prominence and visibility are greater than ever. Penn’s global impact extends from researching solutions to HIV/AIDS in Botswana to improving agriculture in rural parts of India to pioneering environmentally-sound building design in both China and the United States. International programs aided and created through the Campaign include the James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies and the Penn/Wharton China Center, which will provide Penn with a university-wide presence in Beijing. The PIK professorship program recruited Ezekiel Emanuel to Penn as the first vice provost for global initiatives. Emanuel, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and Professor of Health Care Management, is overseeing international programs and working with the president and provost to develop a comprehensive strategy for Penn’s global engagement.

“By attracting international students, expanding study-abroad opportunities and forging partnerships with developing and established nations,” Provost Vincent Price said, “Penn is addressing the most complex, immediate and interwoven challenges of the 21st century. We are committed to using our research, expertise and resources to turn innovative discoveries into practical solutions that build a stronger global society, now and in the future.”

Engaging Alumni: The Power of the Penn Community

Increasing Penn’s connection with 290,000 alumni around the globe was a key objective of the Campaign.

“One of our high priority goals at the outset was to harness the energy of the broader Penn community and put it to work for the good of the University and the world at large,” Lee Spelman Doty, president of Penn Alumni, said. “We want to engage alumni, parents and friends by providing opportunities that will enrich their lives and allow them to connect with each other.”

Through regional events and re-imagined campus programming, the Campaign saw a surge in alumni involvement at all levels. Attendance for major alumni events and programs has risen by 66 percent, and young alumni participation has increased by 89 percent during the last seven years.

“Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who fervently believe in Penn’s vision, our University community is even more powerfully engaged, effectively united and deeply dedicated to creating innovative knowledge and to addressing the most important challenges of our time,” Amy Gutmann said.

Additional information about Making History: The Campaign for Penn is available at finalreport.upenn.edu.

Photographs from the Feb. 28 event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/universityofpennsylvania/sets/72157632889637482/.