With goals to raise $2 billion and to meaningfully engage at least 75,000 alumni, Brilliant Future: The Campaign for UCI has made a profound impact on the campus, the UCI Health enterprise, alumni and the broader community.
This timeline highlights key campaign milestones. Thank you for your help in creating a brilliant future.
2015
Brilliant Future: The Campaign for UCI officially begins with a silent phase and a goal to raise $2 billion, making it the most ambitious fundraising effort in the university’s history.
2016
Sue and Bill Gross commit $40 million to establish the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, the fourth nursing school in the
prestigious UC system.
The Irvine Museum generously gifts the museum’s remarkable collection of California impressionist paintings to UC Irvine, which kick-starts plans to construct a new museum.
2017
Julie Hill becomes chair of the UCI Foundation.
UC Irvine’s first-ever Giving Day, a 24-hour online fundraising campaign, exceeds the goal of $1 million, raising $1.4 million to support students, research and innovative programs.
A transformative $30 million gift from the Samueli Foundation helps fund a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary science building for the engineering, computing and physical sciences.
The UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge is established. The Anti-Cancer Challenge is a community movement to raise awareness and funds for critical cancer research at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
UC Irvine receives a $200 million gift from Susan and Henry Samueli to name the College of Health Sciences and launch a major
integrative health initiative.
An exquisite, long-hidden art collection comes to UC Irvine from the trust of Gerald Buck.
The Parent Executive Board forms to provide and facilitate leadership-level philanthropic support and resources for the university, and promote activities that enrich the student experience.
2018
The Parent Executive Board gives the first Anteater Grant.
2019
The Anteater Network, a flash-mentoring portal for students and alumni, launches. They will network with the leaders of today and mentor the leaders of tomorrow.
In honor of the Beall family’s support, the campus’s entrepreneurial and innovation platform was renamed UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
Brilliant Future: The Campaign for UCI publicly launches as the largest philanthropic campaign and alumni engagement effort in Orange County history.
2020
UC Irvine's first campuswide undergraduate scholarship match launches in February 2020, providing donors with the ability to double their impact and support student success.
UC Irvine starts construction on the Samueli College of Health Sciences complex that promises to be a national showcase for integrative health patient care, training and research.
The UCI Graduate Division Matching Gift Program launches in October 2020 which increases donor investment in new endowments for Ph.D. fellowships.
The Brilliant Future fundraising campaign surpasses $1 billion in gifts, pushing UC Irvine across the halfway mark in its $2 billion philanthropic effort.
2021
Alumnus Vincent Steckler '80 and his wife Amanda Steckler donate $10.4 million to UC Irvine to support art history students as well as the creation of a center committed to making the field of
computing more inclusive.
Chao family gifts to UCI Health for cancer care top $50 million.
UC Irvine hosts topping-out ceremony for the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, a state-of-the-art nine-acre campus that will be a catalyst for care.
Alumni couple Carol and Eugene Choi receive UC Irvine's Extraordinarious award at the 50th Lauds & Laurels event.
Falling Leaves Foundation's $30 million lead gift will fund an innovative UC Irvine medical research building.
UC Irvine breaks ground on new UCI Health – Irvine medical complex, which will include a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room.
The UCI Institute and Museum of California Art receives a naming gift from Jack and Shanaz Langson.
2022
The Brilliant Future campaign reaches 50,000 engaged alumni.
Audrey Steele Burnand estate gifts $57.75 million to UC Irvine to fund the creation of a new campuswide center that will pursue research into the causes and treatment of depression.
Joe C. Wen and family donate $20 million to support the new
UCI Health Center for Advanced Care.
UC Irvine closes its second-highest fundraising year with over $223 million, and the Brilliant Future campaign tops $1.3 billion with
more than 86,000 supporters.
2023
UC Irvine alumni Paul Butterworth '81 and Jo Butterworth '75 pledge $35.5 million to the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences to support programs fostering ICS student success and achievement.
Irvine Health Foundation's $14 million grant to UC Irvine will establish 7 endowed chairs in public health.
Gary Singer ’74 becomes the first alumnus chair of the
UCI Foundation.
Susan and Henry Samueli give $50 million to UC Irvine’s engineering school, launching Engineering+ research institutes on
health, society and the environment.
The Brilliant Future campaign surpasses 100,000 donors.
