Berkeley's overall alumni giving rate is on the upswing.
A relatively low 10 percent of all alumni give annually to the University, but since the beginning of this fiscal year, the participation level is 15 percent higher than at the same time last year.
Alumni giving benefits the campus directly, and outside organizations, such as U.S. News & World Report, also factor this rate into their overall rankings of colleges and universities.
Among the recent major gifts that have pushed Cal to record levels of private support are the following:
- A $15 million gift to the New Materials Initiative (Berkeley Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1) from Gordon Moore, '50, founder and board chair of Intel Corp., and his wife, Betty Moore is considered a "founding father" of Silicon Valley (see p. 12).
- A $5-million pledge from Richard Goldman, '41, and the late Rhoda Haas Goldman, '46, for the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professorship in the College of Letters and Science. This is in addition to recent Goldman gifts of $1.5 million for Edwards Stadium renovations, including a state-of-the-art grass field, and $500,000 for the Incentive Awards Program.
- A pledge for $4 million from Robert Haas, '64, and his wife, Colleen. The designation of this gift is pending. It is on top of their recent $1-million gift for the Walter A. Haas, Jr., Pavilion, in honor of his late father.
- The Bernard Osher Foundation of San Francisco pledged $3.5 million to endow the San Francisco Incentive Awards Program (see page 24).
