Emory's seven-year fundraising campaign may have ended with 2012, but it laid the groundwork for important work just getting started. The Woodruff Health Sciences Center raised a total of $1.17 billion during the campaign, part of the $1.69 billion raised overall at Emory during the most ambitious fundraising effort in the university's history and the largest undertaken in Georgia to date.
The campaign's success was due in part to the generosity of Emory's own employees, thousands of whom donated a total of $105 million to a host of initiatives and programs, nearly doubling the original goal for My Emory.
Donors invested in teaching, research, and patient care throughout the health sciences. Examples of what these funds will support include new chairs and professorships for faculty; seed grants to young investigators in cancer and at Yerkes; scholarships for students in public health, nursing, and medicine and for continuing education for nurses in Emory Healthcare; research support for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, vaccines, autism, pediatrics, and other areas; funds to improve maternal-infant health in Ethiopia and to expand global field experiences for students; and construction or renovation of facilities for patients, students, educators, and researchers.
A new website launched this month (giving.emory.edu) details various gifts and how they will benefit units throughout the university, including Winship, Yerkes, Emory Healthcare, and the schools of medicine, nursing, and public health.
"This is a time to celebrate the campaign success in health sciences and particularly that we exceeded our goal," says Maggi McKay, VP for health sciences development. "But this campaign ultimately was less about numbers and more about the impact of gifts for our programs, building a culture of philanthropy, and generating excitement around Emory's priorities going forward."
"I would like to raise a virtual glass to toast Maggi and her colleagues in development, our campaign volunteer leaders, and most of all, our donors who have stepped forward to invest in what we do and who help make the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and Emory the extraordinary place that it is," says EVPHA Wright Caughman.