Fuel Wonder
The campaign for the University of Arizona
Wonder is at the heart of University of Arizona stories. It’s what drives our students, graduates and faculty to explore and discover more. And it’s what keeps us evolving our university to better serve them.
The Fuel Wonder campaign is a $3 billion fundraising effort to invest in key priorities and initiatives outlined in the university’s strategic plan. It’s the most ambitious campaign in university history and will shape UArizona’s future. By investing in students, faculty and programs, we enrich the ecosystem that makes innovation possible, enable programs to make meaningful differences in our communities and provide students with educational experiences that they can’t get anywhere else.
Biosphere 2
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Join the University of Arizona community in uncovering the unknown, unimagined and unprecedented.
The public phase of the campaign was launched during a news conference held in the Bear Down Building on Nov. 3, during Homecoming weekend, when $118.65 million in gifts toward the $3 billion goal were announced.
The moderator was Alex Flanagan ’93, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in media arts. She is a former sportscaster who has worked for NBC Sports, NFL Network, ESPN and Fox Sports.
“I think what really sticks out for me is just how much growth this university has had since I graduated 30 years ago,” Flanagan said at the press conference. “And to see and hear the incredible things that are happening on the campus and in the community — it makes me really proud and excited.”
Flanagan was joined by a Gamma Phi Beta sorority sister, Marianne Cracchiolo Mago ’93, president and CEO of the Steele Foundation. Cracchiolo Mago, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in media arts, is a campaign co-chair with Terry Lundgren ’75, former CEO of Macy’s Inc. A significant contribution from the Steele Foundation marked the first philanthropic support for the Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies, known as CAMI.
Regents Professor of astronomy Marcia Rieke
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“The goal with CAMI is to develop cell- and gene-based therapies to combat disease — this time to unlock the human immunome, not just for one person in a clinical trial but for numerous others, for anyone who needs it. So, for us, this is what we at Steele Foundation would definitely call a moonshot, after COVID-19 especially,” Cracchiolo Mago said at the press conference.
Lundgren shared his own story during a panel discussion, with students, alumni, donors and faculty and staff members in attendance.
“Like many of our U of A students, I was the first in my family and the only in my large family to actually go to college. So, it was a privilege for me to be able to come to the University of Arizona,” Lundgren said. “And I had no idea what a career in retail might look like when I was 20 years old or how it might shape my own future. But with investments through the Fuel Wonder campaign, we hope to educate our students and expose them to successful business leaders and ultimately prepare them for an exciting career.”
Flanagan, Cracchiolo Mago and Lundgren joined University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins and John-Paul Roczniak, president and CEO of the University of Arizona Foundation, to announce gifts from the Baird Foundation, Patricia and Bruce Bartlett, Jim and Vicki Click, John Compton, Michael and Sheri Hummel, Ellen Kaye, Mona Kreaden and Paul Lipton, Humberto and Czarina Lopez, John and Adrienne Mars, the Waverley Street Foundation, the Tucson Foundations, and several donors who asked that their giving remain anonymous.
Students in adaptive athletics programs cheered the announcement of a $6.5 million gift from Jim and Vicki Click supporting adaptive athletics programs.
“Every gift we have received since Jan. 1, 2017, is part of Fuel Wonder,” Roczniak said. “You can see from the gifts we are announcing the range of causes that are meaningful to our alumni and friends. And although we are announcing some large gifts today, the ongoing charitable support of annual donors has a huge impact on campus programs as well. I am grateful to all of them and proud to share the breadth of impact philanthropy has at this great institution.”
Learn more about the Fuel Wonder campaign and ways to give at fuelwonder.arizona.edu.
