Medical School Raises $706 Million

Harvard Medical School has raised nearly $706 million since the launch of its capital campaign in Nov. 2014, reaching 94 percent of its $750 million target with just under a year to go in the campaign.

The Medical School was one of the last of Harvard’s graduate schools to join the University’s record-breaking capital campaign, which has so far raised over $8 billion against a $6.5 billion goal. Its individual campaign—dubbed “The World Is Waiting: The Campaign for Harvard Medicine”—has so far received nearly 10,000 gifts and pledges to support research funding and curricular reform, among other goals, according to spokesperson Kevin T. Jiang.

The Medical School’s fundraising is especially needed as the University faces deep cuts to federal science funding, University President Drew G. Faust said in an interview with the Harvard-owned Gazette last week. The Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget cuts funding for the National Institutes of Health by roughly 24 percent, Faust said—a “real body blow to higher education and research universities.”

To counter the constrained federal funds, Faust said, the University is “focusing more on partnerships with industry as sources of support for research.” Approximately 43 percent of the gifts to the Medical School campaign have come from foundations and corporations, compared to 39 percent from individuals and family foundations, Jiang said.

The Medical School designated four major priority groups at the start of the campaign: “Discovery,” “Education,” “Service,” and “Leadership.” Discovery—referring to research funding—comprises the majority of the school’s campaign goal, or about $500 million.

The campaign is set to end on June 30, 2018 and the Medical School is confident that the goal of $750 million dollars will be met prior to that date, according to Jiang.

—Staff writer William L. Wang can be reached at william.wang@thecrimson.com.