Chapman University officials announced this week the results of another banner fundraising year.
Officials say Chapman raised nearly $60 million in fiscal year 2023-24, one of the school’s most successful fundraising years ever. The fundraising is part of a yearslong strategic push to enhance the university’s teaching reputation and expand its research footprint.
“Each gift brings us closer to achieving our goal of becoming one of the top institutions in the country,” Matt Parlow, Chapman’s executive vice president and chief advancement officer, said in a statement.
In the past year, Chapman received several substantial naming gifts, including a $10 million donation from the Argyros family that expanded the George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics. The business school also received a gift last year to launch the Doy B. Henley School of Management.
Chapman officials say they aim for the Argyros College to enter the top 50 business school rankings by U.S. News & World Report. In the last six years, the college has risen more than 20 places in those rankings and currently stands at 66th, according to U.S. News & World.
Chapman’s strategic plan under President Danielle Struppa, who announced he will retire next year, includes a $500 million fundraising campaign dubbed “Inspire.” To date, Chapman has raised $389 million as part of that campaign, including more than $132 million in the last two years.
“The Inspire campaign is the biggest fundraising campaign in our history — the previous high was $200 million — and it will help fuel Chapman’s success in achieving the ambitious goals that we have set for ourselves,” Parlow said.
The university aims to sustain a $2 billion endowment by 2037, more than double its current value at $745 million.
But even that number has been rising year-to-year, and the impact can be seen in terms of the university’s accelerating research production, officials said.
In the past two decades, Chapman has seen a 9,000% increase in citations of its professors’ research, Provost Norma Bouchard announced at commencement in May.
“As the campaign results show, people are taking note of what Chapman is doing,” Parlow said.
This upcoming academic year, the university will open the renovated historic Killefer School north of the main campus in Orange. Once an Orange elementary school, and noted for being integrated three years before the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster decision mandated desegregation for children of Mexican ancestry in California, the restored building will house Chapman’s Advanced Physics Lab and Institute of Quantum Studies directed by internationally renowned professor Yakir Aharonov. Earlier this summer, Aharonov was inducted into the Fellowship of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom. Akin to a lifetime achievement award, that is one of physic’s greatest honors.
“The opening builds upon the successful launch last year of an innovative doctoral program in math, physics and philosophy,” Parlow said.
Looking ahead, he said, the university plans to break ground on a new student success center.
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