While UF is braced for $42.2 million in budget cuts, it's also been raising money - about $62 million in private donations since the beginning of January. And to top it off, UF's endowment has finally posted gains.
The endowment - a pool of private donations and state matching funds invested in stocks and fixed-income securities - is up just over 1 percent, totaling $1.01 billion.
That's down from a peak of about $1.27 billion in May 2008, according to numbers provided by Mike Smith, chief investment officer of the group handling UF's investments. For the fiscal year, which began in July, UF's endowment is down about 18 percent.
The $62 million that UF raised so far this year follows record fundraising in December, when UF received $64.9 million.
Since UF began its Florida Tomorrow capital campaign in July of 2005, it raised about $899 million. The goal is to hit $1.5 billion by September of 2012, which means UF is almost $80 million ahead of schedule.
Donations are down this fiscal year, with about 91,000 donations bringing in about $127 million. Last year at this time, UF had received about 113,000 gifts for about $151 million.
Carter Boydstun, director of the campaign, said he's happy with the numbers.
"We're pleased with where we are, especially given the economic conditions," Boydstun said.
