Annual Report
2025-2026
Letter from Chancellor Cynthia Larive
At UC Santa Cruz, bold ideas are becoming transformative action. From expanding student housing and advancing healthcare on the Central Coast to protecting land, accelerating high-impact research, and launching the largest fundraising campaign in campus history, this year brought remarkable momentum. Discover how the UC Santa Cruz community is Inspiring Change and shaping a future of greater opportunity, discovery, and impact.
Leading the change
Leading the Change: The UC Santa Cruz Strategic Plan continues to guide the campus in advancing and strengthening its mission in teaching, research, and service.
Finalized in summer 2023, Leading the Change is a shared vision focused on five pillars aligned with long-standing campuswide goals: enhancing student success; expanding research impact; fostering inclusivity; and improving operational efficiency, sustainability, and resilience.
With the dedication and support of UC Santa Cruz faculty, staff, and students, the campus progressed in all five themes with both near-term and long-term successes.
Advancing student and alumni success
From creating new campus traditions and expanding pathways to medical education and research to strengthening financial aid, global partnerships, and career connections, UC Santa Cruz is investing in the experiences and opportunities that help students thrive. These efforts are building community, increasing access, and supporting student success from the first day on campus through graduation and beyond.
Research impact
From mapping the universe and uncovering the origins of the brain to protecting cultural heritage, advancing environmental solutions, and addressing emerging health and technology challenges, UC Santa Cruz research is making an impact across disciplines—and around the world. With $152 million in new grants in FY26, our researchers continue to turn bold questions into discoveries that matter.
Inspiring Change
With more than $411 million raised by 50,000+ donors, Inspiring Change: The Campaign for UC Santa Cruz is transforming opportunities for students and fueling bold ideas across the university. From education and research to climate, health, the arts, and conservation, this historic campaign is building momentum toward its $750 million goal—and inspiring change for generations to come.
Letter from foundation chair
The UC Santa Cruz Foundation remains a steadfast partner in expanding the university’s impact. For more than 50 years, generous campus donors have supported the foundation in promoting student success, teaching excellence, and research that benefits communities in California and across the world. This past year marked a defining moment in that legacy: the public launch of Inspiring Change: The Campaign for UC Santa Cruz, the most ambitious fundraising effort in the campus’s history.
The campaign is more than halfway toward its $750 million goal and has received support from more than 50,000 donors. In addition to stewarding the campus’s endowment and supporting the campaign directly, foundation members have shared with their friends and colleagues the inspiring and impactful work done by the UC Santa Cruz community.
Collectively, we are accelerating the university’s most important work: expanding life-changing educational experiences, advancing bold solutions to climate and environmental challenges, strengthening community health and well-being, pushing research frontiers, and fostering creativity and artistic expression.
I am so grateful to those of you who have already stepped forward to support Inspiring Change, and to all of you whose continued generosity makes this campaign possible. Your support and advocacy for UC Santa Cruz is more important than ever before.
Sincerely,
Loren Kinczel
Chair, UC Santa Cruz Foundation
By the numbers
FY26 Fundraising Commitments
$74.9 million
15 gifts > $1M
17,400 donors
Endowment Value
$433,375,905
FY26
$359,626,018
FY25
$304,927,626
FY24
$282,128,507
FY23
$269,442,620
FY22
Fundraising commitments by division, FY26
$6.6 million | Arts
$7.4 million | Baskin Engineering
$5 million | Humanities
$21.8 million | Physical and Biological Sciences
$5.9 million | Social Sciences
$599,313 | Library
$27.5 million | Other programs*
Other university programs: Graduate Division, Student Success, Undergraduate Education, and more
Letter from Foundation President and Vice Chancellor for University Advancement
Philanthropy plays an essential role in advancing UC Santa Cruz’s mission of discovery, opportunity, and impact, and I am deeply thankful for our generous donors who provided nearly $75 million in support this past year—our highest total in the past decade.
This remarkable milestone reflects the trust and generosity of a community that believes in what UC Santa Cruz can achieve. Our supporters—through scholarships, fellowships, and other gifts—are helping students pursue their education and gain hands-on experience that prepares them for internships, research, and the careers that follow. Philanthropic support is also fueling groundbreaking research that addresses some of the world’s most urgent challenges and strengthens California’s future.
UC Santa Cruz is a place of bold ideas and lasting impact, made possible by supporters like you who take pride in what we’ve accomplished, believe in what’s ahead, and continue to invest in our shared success.
Sincerely,
Mark Delos Reyes Davis
President, UC Santa Cruz Foundation, and Vice Chancellor for University Advancement