DURHAM, N.C.
Calling it “crucial to Duke’s long-term ability to attract the very best students and to make quality education affordable for all families,” President Richard H. Brodhead announced late last week that Duke University plans to raise $300 million in new endowment funds over the next three years to strengthen its financial aid programs for students.
The Financial Aid Initiative seeks $245 million for undergraduate aid, including $15 million for athletic scholarships and $55 million to support graduate and professional school students.
Brodhead said $148.6 million of the $300 million goal has already been given or pledged, including $100 million to be used to encourage other donors to provide endowment funds for financial aid that will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
He said the fund-raising effort will increase to more than $1 billion — roughly one-quarter of Duke’s total endowment — the amount reserved for scholarship support for students who “would not otherwise be able to afford to study at Duke.”
Brodhead said the initiative was also motivated by another priority: “Education helps equip the gifted kid of today to make the maximum contribution to the world we’ll all live in tomorrow. When we invest in financial aid, we’re investing in the development of talent, and so investing in our social future.”
In October, Brodhead announced that $75 million had been committed to match new gifts for financial aid by The Duke Endowment, a Charlotte-based charitable trust established by Duke University founder James Buchanan Duke in 1924. The gift was the largest in the Endowment’s 81-year history and the largest ever received by Duke for any purpose.
