Yeshiva University Extends $1 Billion Fundraising Campaign; to Raise Additional $400 Million for Undergraduate Scholarships

Yeshiva University is embarking on a “Mandate to Matter,” an aggressive drive to both complete the final stages of a $1 billion capital campaign it launched in 2006 and to raise an additional $400 million for undergraduate scholarships, a core University priority. YU launched the $1 billion campaign—a comprehensive, University-wide campaign encompassing Yeshiva’s undergraduate, graduate and professional schools and affiliates—with an initial record-breaking $100 million gift from industrialist Ronald P. Stanton. In total, it has raised some $800 million, much of it during a very challenging economic environment. These commitments have enabled YU to increase financial assistance to deserving students, strengthen its faculty, research and academic programs, and enhance the quality of student life, campus infrastructure and community outreach. Yeshiva’s goal is to raise an additional $400 million in undergraduate scholarship funds. A significant portion of these funds will serve as an endowment, with the remainder used for immediate scholarship needs each year. Ira Mitzner, the president of RIDA Development Corp., a family-owned real estate company in Houston, will chair the campaign. “Academic excellence and fiscal strength require significant philanthropic support," said Mitzner. "Yeshiva University is indispensable to the world and to the Jewish community.” “The Yeshiva University experience is more than an intellectual pursuit. It is about providing each and every student, undergraduate and graduate, with the knowledge, skills, opportunities and values to become a whole person and to live a life of meaning,” said YU President Richard M. Joel. “The campaign for Yeshiva University is designed to secure the resources that will enable our students to fulfill their Mandate to Matter—to themselves, their families, their professions, the Jewish community and the world.”