Rutgers fundraises record $48 million in first 3 months of FY15

CAMDEN – The fiscal year may have changed, but Rutgers' success in fundraising did not.

Rutgers president Robert Barchi revealed Thursday during a meeting of the university's Board of Governors that the development office fundraised $48 million during the first three months of Fiscal Year 2015. It is a school-record for any quarter, according to Barchi.

Rutgers fundraised a school-record $148.4 million in Fiscal Year 2014, which closed June 30. Athletics was responsible for $13.8 million of that total.

"We are building. We don't want to see this be a peak and then a valley. We want to continue it as a trajectory," Barchi told a small group of reporters after the meeting in the Camden Campus Center. "We're still way down in the bottom of our (Big Ten) peers in terms of total endowment but also in terms of annual fundraising. We have to steadily build up our capacity to generate funding for the university, not just for the endowment but the operating budget for scholarships and for endowed professorships if we're going to succeed in doing what we want to do. It's critically important."

Barchi's powerpoint presentation to the BOG also showed that Rutgers has $800 million worth of capital projects in the ground or in design. All are scheduled for completion by the school's 250th anniversary celebration in 2016.

Barchi has set a goal of $160 million in fundraising for Fiscal Year 2015 and Rutgers University Foundation president Nevin Kessler believes Rutgers can eclipse the $200 million plateau within the next five years.

"I know we pushed hard last year and I'm just delighted to see the first quarter of this year looks even better than last year," Barchi said. "We're just continuing on that trajectory."

Barchi pointed to a seven-fold increase in away game Rutgers football ticket sales and other numbers on the rise as a sign that athletics revenue also is on an upward trajectory. Rutgers athletics operated with a nation-record $47 million subsidy last year.

"We're off and running," Barchi said during his presentation. "Just from the point of view of what does the Big Ten mean, that's revenue that we can use to offset (subsidization) for athletics. That's the idea. That's the plan."

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleav@gannett.com