Fundraising

In July, Nanette DiLauro, Barnard’s director of financial aid, wrote to students who received financial aid and had participated in the housing lottery in the spring semester. She informed them that they were eligible to receive a financial aid award of $7,846 to support off-campus room and board as a part of the campus reopening plans.

During the 2010s, Columbia Athletics was able to clinch 33 Ivy League championships and 11 national team titles. Under two athletic directors—M. Dianne Murphy, who served between 2004 and 2015, and current Athletic Director Peter Pilling—Columbia Athletics began toto transform, developing nationally-recognized programs such as fencing, men’s tennis, and cross country. Such teams have routinely found themselves among the top 25 in the nation.

In its eighth annual Giving Day, Columbia raised $22 million through 18,622 donations as of 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, surpassing last year’s fundraising totals by over $2 million. This year’s top earners were Columbia College, followed by Columbia Athletics and Columbia Business School.

Despite plans for the School of International and Public Affairs to move to Manhattanville by 2020, an apparent lack of fundraising plans—due to lack of administrative priorities and limited alumni engagement—have left the future of the move up in the air.

When University President Lee Bollinger announced the launch of Columbia Commitment in spring 2017, the $5-billion-in-5-year campaign proposed a vision for the University with seven major initiatives specifically geared toward connecting scholarly work with broad, global impact.

Columbia raised a record high of over $20.1 million on its seventh annual Giving Day as of 1 a.m. Thursday morning, surpassing last year’s earnings by nearly five million dollars.

Columbia raised $14,561,043 as of 4 a.m. Thursday in its fifth annual Giving Day campaign, hitting a record high.

Barnard Columbia Divest for Climate Justice is organizing its own endowment fund as part of its efforts to push the University to divest from fossil fuel investments.