UCI breaks nonprofit record

UC Irvine raised more than $120 million in private donations and grants during the last fiscal year, in what campus officials said was a record-breaking performance for an Orange County institution.

At a news conference and luncheon Wednesday morning at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, Chancellor Michael Drake and UCI Foundation President Tom Mitchell said UCI had raised more funds over the last year than any nonprofit in the history of the county.

A campus research team had reached that conclusion by examining records from a number of local universities and institutions.

“They looked into it last year and did some pretty exhaustive research,” said Meg Waters, a consultant to the university.

The $120.1 million raised by UCI in 2006-07 marked a 19% increase over the year before, while the 26,881 gifts given to the university outdid the previous year’s total by 57%.

Drake said that with support for UCI increasing, he hoped to see it ranked in the top 1% of universities nationwide within a decade.

“The support we’ve had from the community has really been overwhelming,” said the chancellor, who took office in July 2005.

Drake provided a T-shirt reading “Eater Nation” — referring to UCI’s mascot, the anteater — to all those present at the conference.

In addition to the fundraising, the conference hailed 10 achievements at UCI over the 2006-07 year, with poster boards in the lobby depicting each one.

Among the events noted were the championship runs of UCI’s volleyball and baseball teams, the dedications of Aldrich Hall and Bren Hall, the establishment of the UCI law school, the first students welcomed to the nursing school, and the monetary support for the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.