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1 Campaign Worthy of IU’s 200th Year

A wide-shot photo of the IUPUI bell tower picutured against a blue sky.
The IUPUI Campus Center bell tower. (Photo by Liz Kaye, IU Studios)

For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign set the bar higher than any fundraising effort in the university’s history. And you, the IU faithful, rose to the challenge.

Your extraordinary generosity not only met but exceeded the campaign goal—twice—resulting in nearly $3.9 billion raised to support IU students, faculty, research, and so much more. These people and programs will transform our world for the better, creating safer, healthier, more vibrant, and more innovative communities for all.

The bicentennial campaign was also a milestone of unity and loyalty. For the first time in university history, all IU campuses joined together in support of one common goal. And the IU family came together, too, supporting this effort from all over the world in greater numbers than ever before.

Most important, however, is what you’ve made possible with your support. Your contributions to the four priority areas of this campaign have:

Established almost 6,000 new scholarships

… that enable deserving students to pursue a life-changing IU education

Created research centers on world-shaping issues

… like artificial intelligence, immunotherapy, and climate change

Increased study abroad opportunities

… that shape IU students into global citizens ready to take on the world

Enabled us to tackle major health crises

… such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, and addiction

For all the lives you have changed … for all the dreams you have fulfilled … for all the brighter futures you have made possible . . .

We cannot thank you enough.


200 Years & Counting

How your support made history:

Infographic containing the following Bicentennial Campaign statistics: $3,861,456,110 raised in support of IU students, faculty, and programs; 322,548 donors from 50 states and 100+ countries; 20,120 current, retired, and former faculty and staff supporters; 5,807 scholarships and fellowships for IU students; 235 new faculty chairs and professorships; 9 IU campuses united for a common goal.

Put in perspective, IU added roughly half the number of faculty chairs, professorships, student scholarships, and fellowships during this campaign than it had in the previous 190 years combined!

“We owe our deepest gratitude to the unwavering generosity, dedication, and loyalty of the more than 320,000 IU alumni and friends who contributed to this campaign,” concluded IU President Michael A. McRobbie. “The enormous impact of your generosity, which has touched so many lives, will endure through the next century.”


This article was originally published in the fall 2020 issue of Imagine magazine.

Written By

A. Price

A resident of the Hoosier state since grade school, Alex forged a friendship with “tried and true” IU upon becoming a writer at the IU Foundation.

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