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When The Meliora Challenge comprehensive campaign ended in June, five years after its public launch, the University had raised more than $1.373 billion, exceeding the $1.2 billion goal.

More than 200,000 donors and 7,300 volunteers took part. The campaign has brought more than 100 new endowed professorships, more than 400 new scholarships and fellowships, and more than $129 million for new and improved facilities and infrastructure.

The Medical Center led a nearly $700 million campaign for The Meliora Challenge, a major portion of which provided for the new Golisano Children鈥檚 Hospital, an eight-story space dedicated to healing the 74,000 children across the region who rely on the University for care each year.

Tom Farrell 鈥�88, 鈥�90W (MS), senior vice president for University advancement, says that he鈥檚 grateful for the outpouring of generosity鈥攁nd that the funds the campaign raised are crucial for the University to carry out its many functions. But he calls the role that the campaign has played in rallying people to reconnect with Rochester and its mission even more essential. Those relationships are the real key to making the University 鈥渆ver better,鈥� he says.

From his base in the Larry and Cindy Bloch Alumni and Advancement Center, Farrell has led the advancement program since 2014. A Rochester native, he was vice president for alumni relations and development at the University of Chicago before becoming chief development officer for the University of Illinois and president and CEO of the University of Illinois Foundation. He also served in leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth. His more than 25 years of advancement experience began in 1990, when he worked in the reunion and regional development program at Rochester.

What鈥檚 the value of campaigns?

They鈥檙e very effective tools for forming a vision and a set of priorities for an institution鈥檚 future. They bring the people who care about a place together around objectives and ideas that they connect with and want to participate in.

So campaigns are also an exercise in clarification?

Absolutely. One of the great things that came out of this campaign is our memorable mission statement: Learn, Discover, Heal, Create鈥攁nd Make the World Ever Better. It鈥檚 a pretty remarkable distillation of what great American research universities like Rochester are all about.

What does it mean to 鈥渟upport鈥� a university? Is that fundamentally about money?

No, it鈥檚 not at all. We want to build a much stronger culture of ownership around the future of the University. And that ownership might be giving a gift, but it might also be advocacy, or volunteering, or giving career support to our students, or providing feedback, or participating in an event. And it involves all our stakeholders鈥攏ot just alumni, but also students, faculty, staff, and friends.

Here鈥檚 what I mean by ownership: if I look up at the ceiling in my house and I see a leak, I鈥檒l be agitated and concerned. I鈥檒l call a contractor. I鈥檒l get it fixed right away. But if I鈥檓 in a hotel room and I see a leak in the ceiling, I鈥檒l think, wow, they鈥檝e got a leak in their ceiling. I might tell the manager, but probably wouldn鈥檛.

We鈥檙e trying to develop the same culture of ownership for people who are connected to the University, and to do it in a way that鈥檚 based in our mission and that will help support our mission as we go forward.

What encourages that sense of connection for people?

Communication. Expectation setting. Shared values. I think people significantly misinterpret any university鈥檚 interest in contributions, in this sense: are we interested in people participating and continuing to be active members of this community? Yes, we are. Are we interested in people鈥攁lumni and others鈥攎aking large donations to support our mission, donations without which we can鈥檛 carry out the mission? Yes, we are. Should people who can鈥檛 give $1,000 or $10,000 or $1 million or $10 million feel like their $50 gift doesn鈥檛 mean anything? Absolutely not.

Giving a $50 gift to your university, in my view, is saying, yes, I still believe. I鈥檓 making a vote that indicates that I鈥檓 still connected to you. The University made a difference in my life, and I鈥檓 willing to make a tangible statement in recognition of that by giving you $50, or $10. It鈥檚 not about the money. It鈥檚 about raising your hand and saying, I still believe in the University and I鈥檓 willing to participate in this way.

It鈥檚 not the only way of participating. We鈥檙e hoping that people will be advocates, go to events, read Rochester Review, stay in touch with their friends, give information, and say good things about the U of R when they鈥檙e asked about it.

The opposite of love isn鈥檛 hate鈥攊t鈥檚 indifference. We don鈥檛 want an indifferent community. We want a connected community, and we want to make the connections we have already even stronger.

Has that been happening?

I think it has. We hit all of our major goals. We raised a much greater amount of money than we had previously. We were able to develop our volunteer culture. We were able to revamp our communications and regional and geographic event activity. We were able to connect with our faculty and staff in ways that we never had before.

A lot of this has to be considered in the context of Joel Seligman鈥檚 presidency. It鈥檚 important for people to remember that the campaign has coincided with Joel鈥檚 presidency, and with a dramatic growth and improvement in so many different aspects of the University鈥檚 activities.

You can see the effect of that vision if you look at the physical infrastructure, at the quality of our faculty and students, at the improvement in our financial position, at the growth of our endowment, and at the growth in many program areas鈥攊ncluding, very importantly, the Medical Center.

Everyone came together around a mission-based vision to make the place better. And through the campaign, we sought all the revenue sources we could to drive that. We persevered through the recession. And it came together.

How far does the money raised go toward meeting the University鈥檚 expenses?

It鈥檚 a heck of a lot of money. But it鈥檚 important to compare those dollars to the size of the institution鈥�29,000 total employees, a $3.2 billion total budget, annual outlays of over $100 million a year in financial aid to undergraduates, and $900 million-plus in capital project improvements over the same time period. If you look at total institutional expenditures over the life of the campaign, it鈥檚 over $32 billion鈥攁nd the campaign raised $1.37 billion.

We鈥檝e benefited from tremendous generosity. Philanthropy is a defining aspect of American higher education, but philanthropy and the endowment, on an annual basis, generate less than 10 percent of our revenues. If you look at our peer institutions, it would be more like a third. So we still have a ways to go. And if you look at the fact that Stanford University last year raised over $1.2 billion dollars in cash in one year, you start to recognize that, from a competitive point of view, we鈥檙e just beginning.

Now what?

We鈥檙e spending the year going around the country and the globe to thank people for what they鈥檝e done. We owe special thanks to our Rochester community. The Greater Rochester area donated 41 percent of the campaign total. That鈥檚 truly significant and it speaks, in part, to the vital role of our Medical Center in this community.

At the same time, we鈥檙e also grateful to the people around the globe who鈥檝e participated. The University is important nationally and internationally, and the gifts that made up 59 percent of our campaign total are a demonstration of that. We want to protect against the campaign being viewed as episodic. A campaign is a means, not an end. It was always about the mission, not the money.

Even as we鈥檙e expressing our gratitude, we鈥檙e also continuing to try to raise funds to support the mission and the priorities of the University. That鈥檚 how American higher education works. There鈥檚 a partnership that finances American higher education, and it includes many different resource streams鈥攊ncluding students and families, the endowment and institutional support, federal research grants and other funding, and limited but critically important support from the state. And it includes philanthropy.

But philanthropy can鈥檛 happen outside of a genuine commitment to engaging, over long periods of time, with our external communities. Without that commitment, it just doesn鈥檛 work. And the U of R in the past wasn鈥檛 always deeply committed to seeking those connections. That鈥檚 an idea that has been banished from this institution鈥檚 mind-set.

Joel鈥檚 been the chief communicator of that message, but it鈥檚 also something that everybody here is committed to鈥攏ot just the Advancement office, but also the deans, the provost, the faculty, the board, our volunteer leaders, our donors, and our supporters. We hope all our alumni, parents, and friends will feel that, too.