American University’s Change Can’t Wait fundraising campaign reached its $500 million goal, President Sylvia Burwell announced in an email Tuesday.
Planning for the campaign began in 2017 soon after Burwell took over as president and was officially launched in 2021. The largest fundraising goal in the University’s history, it was created “to redefine what is possible for the Eagle community,” according to the AU website.
The Change Can’t Wait campaign is a part of the University’s seven-year strategic plan, “Changemakers for a Changing World,” which ends in 2025. The plan “builds on our legacy of leadership, scholarship, and service and focuses on the challenges facing our community and higher education,” according to AU’s website.
The campaign has three pillars — elevate, inspire and lead. ‘Elevate’ aims to make an AU education more accessible and affordable, ‘inspire’ to provide opportunities and resources for faculty and ‘lead’ to build community in the D.C. area.
The fundraising has created or expanded four centers and institutes, eight endowed faculty positions and more than 170 scholarships, according to the email.
Seventy-two thousand donations have been made towards the campaign, including around 23,000 by alumni, 9,000 by faculty and staff, 1,900 by students and 9,000 by parents. Additional donations made before the end of the fiscal year on June 30 will count towards the campaign.
A Change Can’t Wait festival is scheduled for Sep. 28 on campus during Jonathan Alger’s first semester as president after he takes over on July 1.
“In my last days as president of American University, I am so proud to share this accomplishment with all of you,” Burwell wrote. “Change Can’t Wait brought our community together to support generations of Eagles to come.”
This article was edited by Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks.
