The University of Toronto launches Boundless, its $2-billion fundraising campaign

The University of Toronto has unveiled Boundless, the largest fundraising campaign in Canadian university history. With a historic $2-billion goal, the campaign for the University of Toronto will help expand U of T’s global leadership capacity across critical areas of knowledge and help develop the talent, ideas and solutions for the defining challenges of our time.

University of Toronto President David Naylor made the announcement at a ceremony in Convocation Hall at the downtown St. George campus. With this new campaign, U of T will explore the boundless possibilities of its community of alumni, students and faculty for global leadership and societal impact. (Enjoy photos from the launch.)

“Canada must have universities that can achieve two related goals: conduct the advanced research that will help solve the grand challenges humanity now faces, and offer the best and brightest students an exceptional education to help them build a better world. No university in Canada is better positioned to meet those objectives than the University of Toronto,” said Naylor.

The campaign’s goal is $2 billion in philanthropic support, of which nearly half—$966 million—has been secured.  The campaign has two central pillars:

• Preparing global citizens will foster international fluency and leadership skills among the University’s almost 80,000 undergraduate and graduate students – by raising funds to support student awards and build learning environments that nurture creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, disciplinary excellence, interdisciplinary inquiry and global perspectives.
• Meeting global challenges will support path-breaking research and teaching that generates solutions for healthy, sustainable and successful societies, while also strengthening the essential foundation of basic research. Funds raised will support the University’s world-class minds, attract a new generation of “rising star” faculty and make critical enhancements to programs and infrastructure.

Notwithstanding recent investments in higher education in Ontario, U of T’s total revenue per full-time student is about 41 per cent lower than the average for publicly funded peer institutions in the U.S.

“The fact that we are able to compete with—and in many cases outperform—our peers, both in Canada and around the world, speaks to the excellence of our students, faculty and staff,” said Naylor.

Over the last decade, U of T has consistently ranked among the top 30 universities in the world—and consistently among the top three for scholarly output.

The university’s previous campaign, which closed in December 2003, raised $1 billion and remains the most successful campaign in Canadian history. The campaign played a vital role in vaulting the University of Toronto into the top ranks of universities worldwide. Now, nearly eight years later, the university is ready to build on this foundation, to advance groundbreaking research and teaching, seize on new opportunities and broaden our impact on the global issues that matter most to Canadians.

“This is an extraordinary milestone for the university,” said David  Peterson, chancellor of U of T.  “With input from across our community, we have developed an eloquent, bold vision for a world-leading university in the 21st century. We will look to our global network of friends and alumni – who now number more than 500,000 across 174 countries – to join us in this exciting campaign. With their generosity and involvement, we will work together on fundamental questions that will shape the course of human knowledge and experience and prepare our students for leadership in an increasingly borderless world.”