‘We helped and healed each other’

As the yearlong, $100 million Together for Rochester campaign closes, University leaders thank the campus and alumni community for making a “real difference in the lives of many.”

As the full picture of the year 2020 came into focus last spring—a devastating pandemic, an isolating life of lockdowns and closings, a renewed racial reckoning—the University of Rochester community drew together. Over the course of a challenging year, alumni, faculty, students, parents, and friends pitched in to volunteer their time, personal attention, and resources to help ensure that Rochester emerged ready to succeed in a post-pandemic world.

That’s the report as the one-year Together for Rochester campaign came to a close at the end of June.

The yearlong engagement and fundraising campaign brought together more than 40,000 alumni, parents, and friends, raising more than $112 million to support students, faculty, coronavirus research, diversity initiatives, and other mission-critical programs.

The campaign also connected and supported the University community through an array of virtual engagement programs.

During a time when many universities experienced a decline in charitable giving, Rochester held steady. For the eighth year in a row, the University surpassed $100 million in cash receipts, demonstrating the commitment of the University’s alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, and friends.

“Throughout this challenging year, we helped and healed each other,” says President Sarah Mangelsdorf, the G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor. “We offered programs and experiences that enriched the hearts and minds  of our community and gave them new ways to come together and learn from each other. We stepped up, we pitched in, and we made a real difference in the lives of so many.”

More than $3.7 million was raised to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities, most supporting financial aid, which was accelerated by the Naveen and Courtney Nataraj Scholarship Challenge, sponsored by University Trustee Naveen Nataraj ’97 and his wife, Courtney, and the Evans Lam Opportunity Scholarship Challenge, led by University Trustee Evans Lam ’84, ’84S (MBA). In total, some 1,222 donors supported diversity and equity initiatives during the one-year campaign. Additionally, the University launched important new programs like the REAL (Rochester’s Equity & Access Leadership) Conversations series and new affinity networks—the Black Alumni Network, the Women’s Network, and the First-Generation Network—forming important new relationships among alumni.

Donors funded COVID-19 initiatives including important vaccine research, emergency supplies for students, and resources for the Medical Center’s frontline health care workers such as emergency childcare, meals, and personal protective equipment. Masks, boxes of latex gloves, and even hospital beds came from nearby Rochester businesses and as far away as China.

With career opportunities and internships scarce because of the pandemic, the campaign emphasized support for career initiatives. The campaign facilitated more than 400 new job and internship postings and more than 2,800 new people joined The Meliora Collective, an online career portal connecting students, alumni, and friends. More than $668,000 was raised for the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections for summer internship funds, stipends, and virtual recruiting efforts.

“Although we faced challenges throughout the 2020-21 fiscal year, the ways we came together are truly quite remarkable,” say Senior Vice President for University Advancement Thomas Farrell ’88, ’90W (MS). “We were there for each other. And our alumni, donors, and friends were there for Rochester—supporting an institution they believe in.”

Learn more at www.rochester.edu/advancement.