University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser today announced that the Carolina First Campaign raised $2.38 billion to finish as the fifth largest completed campaign in higher education and the largest completed fund-raising drive at a university in the South. A $9 million pledge to the UNC School of Pharmacy from Fred Eshelman of Wilmington pushed the campaign to that historic mark.

The board of North Carolina’s University Cancer Research Fund matched the pledge, generating a total investment of $18 million. The funds will support cancer research by the School of Pharmacy and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center that focuses on genetics, individualized cancer therapy, drug discovery and drug delivery.

Eshelman is CEO and founder of Wilmington-based PPD Inc., a leading global contract research organization providing discovery, development and post-approval services as well as compound partnering programs to the biopharmaceutical industry. His latest pledge builds on a $20 million commitment he made to the School of Pharmacy in 2003. That marked the largest commitment ever to a U.S. pharmacy school.

Bob Blouin, dean of the School of Pharmacy, said that Eshelman wanted to keep the school moving forward. He pointed to NIH funding to the school as an example of its progress. In 2003, the school ranked twenty-second among the nation’s pharmacy schools in NIH funding. Last year it had climbed to eighth.

“Thanks to the support of generous donors, our aggressive pursuit of research funding and partners like Lineberger, we have had great success in attracting really top-flight scientists to the school over the past few years,” Blouin said. “That kind of effort puts considerable strain on resources, and we expected that it would take five years to have all our new centers working at full capacity. Dr. Eshelman wanted to significantly shorten that time frame.”

Moeser said Eshelman’s commitment marked a “particularly appropriate high note to go out on.”

“Dr. Eshelman’s support epitomizes what this campaign has been all about,” Moeser said. “Carolina First truly transformed this university. Every dollar has made us a stronger institution, and every donor has our deepest gratitude.

“The campaign’s success attests to the tremendous leadership of our volunteers and the hard work of so many of our faculty and staff. Thanks to them and our donors, Carolina First has provided us with a margin of excellence that will enable us to be of even greater service to our students, as well as citizens here in North Carolina, across the nation and around the globe.”

Carolina First, which supported UNC’s vision to be the nation’s leading public university, began July 1, 1999 and ended Dec. 31, 2007. Its public launch came in October 2002 with a $1.8 billion goal. That mark was raised to $2 billion in October 2005. Not only did Carolina surpass its overall goal, but each professional school and unit exceeded individual goals as well. The campaign also boasted yearly records for commitments ($363.6 million), which include pledges, and gifts ($250.8 million), both set in fiscal year 2007.

The final $2.38 billion raised included $419.5 million for faculty, including 208 new endowed professorships; $345.2 million for students, including 577 new scholarships and 196 new fellowships; $579.7 million for research; $654.7 million for strategic initiatives; and $184.2 million for facilities.

“The success of this campaign exceeded all our expectations, again and again,” said Carolina First Campaign Steering Committee Co-chair Paul Fulton, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from Winston-Salem. “We began by thinking that our original goal of $1.8 billion was ambitious. It was, but donors were even more ambitious. So we raised the goal to $2 billion, and even that proved low. Our donors are amazing.”

The campaign received contributions from more than 193,000 donors, ranging from current students to Dennis and Joan Gillings, who pledged $50 million to support the School of Public Health. The campaign’s single largest donor was the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and related Kenan entities and family members. They combined to commit $69.9 million.

Overall, about $860 million (36 percent) came from Carolina alumni, $894 million (38 percent) came from corporations and foundations, and friends of the University and other organizations provided the balance.

“Support came from every corner,” said Carolina First Campaign Steering Committee Co-chair Charlie Shaffer of Atlanta. “The amount of participation shows the depth and breadth of love for Carolina, and the realization that new levels of excellence were well within our reach.”

More than $960 million in gifts and pledges were raised by Carolina First for the University’s endowment. Gifts alone, which went directly into the endowment, accounted for over $500 million of that total. These gifts, along with excellent returns earned by the UNC Investment Fund, have helped raised the endowment’s value to $2.2 billion.

“The campaign has made an important shift; it has increased emphasis on private fund raising,” said Carolina First Campaign Steering Committee Co-chair Mike Overlock of Greenwich, Conn. “Going forward, public universities need to become full partners with their states. If we want to compete with the best private colleges and universities, we cannot rely on state resources alone to meet our needs.”

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