Inspiring Change

UC Santa Cruz launched its public phase of Inspiring Change: The Campaign for UC Santa Cruz in fall 2025, after a five-year quiet phase. The university’s largest comprehensive fundraising campaign is already more than halfway to its goal of raising $750 million, support that is already expanding access to life-changing educational opportunities for students and will allow the university to continue to advance world-changing ideas and solutions that benefit all.

Inspiring Change supports the entire university and spotlights campus work on advancing five interconnected themes. These themes reinforce historic strengths of UC Santa Cruz and reflect our aspirations to increase the university’s impact. The themes are: 

• Life-changing educational experiences
• Bold solutions to climate impacts and environmental challenges 
• Regional and global community health and wellness 
• Research frontiers and groundbreaking innovations
• Creativity, artistic expression, and transformative dialogue

Inspiring Change continues to build momentum toward its $750 million goal, expected to be achieved in 2030.

Celebrating Inspiring Change across California and on the East Coast 

UC Santa Cruz brought Inspiring Change across California and to the East Coast, hosting events in celebration with alumni, donors, and friends of the university. The Campaign launched with a celebration held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, an event that encompassed remarks from Chancellor Cynthia Larive, former Executive Director of the Aquarium and Campaign Co-Chair Julie Packard, and Co-Chair Bev Crair. Their remarks reflected on the transformative role UC Santa Cruz has played in their own lives and its potential to drive positive change for the region and the world.

From there, the momentum extended to Los Angeles for a second launch event, with additional regional celebrations following in Sacramento, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco. 

FY26 Philanthropy highlights 

$7 million 

Gift from a donor who asked to remain anonymous will establish an endowed chair in the Arts Division and will support various areas across campus, amplifying student success and opportunities. 

$2 million 

Grant from the Mellon Foundation will help propel humanities careers through the Employing Humanities initiative. 

$1.2 million 

In gifts will bolster experiential learning programs within the Institute for Social Transformation, expanding hands-on opportunities for students. 

$500,000

Leadership gift will advance the renewal of the East Field running path, promoting health and well-being and supporting athletics and recreation at UC Santa Cruz. 

Conserving regional habitat and expanding UC Santa Cruz’s impact on sustainable organic farming 

UC Santa Cruz announced a collaboration with The Conservation Fund (TCF) to conserve more than 200 acres of land adjacent to the campus. Through this collaboration, made possible by private grants and philanthropy, the campus began stewarding the land in August 2025. 

The land will be used for research, field internships, outdoor experiential learning, and wildlife conservation. The 200-plus acres, with its noted environmental sensitivity and conservation value, will be permanently protected from the development of housing or other administrative and academic facilities and maintain this important regional greenbelt. Nearly half of the property will include permanent habitat for protected species as agreed upon with the National Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition, the campus continues to pursue a transformative plan to expand UC Santa Cruz’s research and education in sustainable organic agriculture through the acquisition of another 200-plus acres of private farmland that borders its coastal campus. 

The ocean-front farm is near the campus’s established presence on Santa Cruz’s Westside, which includes the Coastal Science Campus and Westside Research Park, and it is less than three miles from the residential campus. 

Together, these properties create an unparalleled opportunity to advance UCSC’s leadership in agroecology, conservation, and sustainability while preserving critical coastal habitats and landscapes for future generations.

10 years of Giving Day

Since 2015, thousands of Slugs and their supporters have united annually to support scholarships, groundbreaking research, student clubs, athletics teams, resource centers, and more. Over that time, nearly $9 million has been raised to support UC Santa Cruz students. Every gift, big or small, adds up to create lasting change and transform the student experience.

The 10th annual Giving Day hosted more than 200 project teams, included 15 challenges, and raised funds for thousands of students participating in campus programs and organizations.