More than 94,000 Duke University alumni and friends gave nearly $492 million in fiscal year 2022 to support research, faculty, financial aid, patient care, campus transformations, and the student experience.

“The generosity of our alumni and friends sustains Duke’s research, education, and patient care missions,” said Duke President Vincent E. Price. “I am grateful for their support of our bold vision to address today’s most pressing challenges and chart a course toward an even stronger tomorrow.”

Gifts and non-governmental grants for research totaled nearly $197 million, representing the largest funded area of private philanthropy. Donors also supported financial aid for undergraduate and graduate students ($123 million), faculty research and teaching ($20 million), and new construction and facility renovations ($15 million).

“The Duke community is amazing when it comes together—and the support of this community, this year is a testament to that,” said David L. Kennedy, vice president for alumni affairs and development. “We at Duke are so appreciative of the sustained generosity of our Duke alumni, donors and friends.”

The Duke Annual Fund received more than $47 million from nearly 52,000 alumni, parents, students, and friends—a new record. The Annual Fund helps support students and faculty, financial aid and fellowships, and educational programs for all of Duke’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. It also supports Duke Chapel, Duke Libraries, Duke Marine Lab, Nasher Museum of Art, and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

See the impact of philanthropy at Duke in the 2022 Annual Impact Report. Highlights include:

• It was a leap forward for Duke Science and Technology, the university’s signature effort to elevate excellence in the sciences, with nearly $36 million in gifts in FY22 and more than $271 million to date since the campaign’s inception.
• Duke is uniting the university’s education, research, operations, and public service missions to engage our entire community in the relentless pursuit of climate change solutions. This effort is being bolstered by major gifts including $3.5 million supporting a professorship in the Nicholas School of the Environment and $375,000 expendable support to ensure every Duke student becomes “climate fluent” via a focused effort to infuse the Duke curriculum with new courses on climate change, environmental policy, and more.
• Financial aid for students was an important focus of donors and grantees this year. The Duke Endowment gave a $10 million award to help remove economic barriers for Duke Law School students by providing matching funds for endowments supporting scholarships and loan repayment assistance. In addition, Duke received an anonymous bequest of $15 million from a Duke alumni couple to support scholarships for student changemakers pursuing degrees at Duke University School of Nursing, Duke Divinity School, and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
• An anonymous Duke alumni family made an $11 million gift to Duke, $8.75 million of which endowed two public policy professorships and supported the Sanford School of Public Policy. The public policy program founded by Terry Sanford—former Duke president, North Carolina governor, and United States senator—celebrated 50 years at the university over the course of the last year. The largest part of the gift, $4 million, created the Grand Challenges of Public Policy Fellowship Fund, which is being used to support Sanford graduate students who have demonstrated a commitment to addressing the biggest problems that can be solved by public policy.
• Duke Law School received a $2.5 million commitment to launch a criminal defense clinic. Funded by the Barton Family Foundation, the new clinic is providing Duke Law students with a hands-on, experiential learning course in the practice of criminal representation and training them to be leaders in ending mass incarceration and racial injustice.
• The Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Duke University School of Medicine, and Duke University Health System launched a new initiative aimed at increasing diversity in clinical research and reducing health disparities. The initiative was supported by a $2.65 million grant to the School of Medicine from The Duke Endowment.
• Duke named a state-of-the-art design lab The Christensen Family Center for Innovation for the family of the late thought leader Clayton Christensen, in recognition of the Christensen family’s $5 million gift to the Pratt School of Engineering. The gift provides perpetual support for the design center and support for a growing series of immersive design programs focused on solving challenges in health care, climate change, and other global issues facing humanity and the planet.
• The Energy Access Project at Duke received a $3 million gift from M.A. Rogers to expand its efforts to develop policy and market solutions for modern energy solutions. The Energy Access Project was established in 2017 through an earlier gift from Rogers and her late husband, Jim, the former CEO and chairman of the board of the electric utility company Duke Energy. The program will adopt the new name of the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke in his memory.
• Anonymous donors committed $10 million to Duke that includes $3 million for need-based financial aid, $5 million for the Research Translation and Commercialization (RTC) Project Fund to support translational research projects generated by Duke faculty and students, and $2 million to the RTC Infrastructure Support Fund in support of expanding and enhancing Duke’s RTC operations.

The total includes cash gifts from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, and does not include pledges for future support or government contracts. Universities and colleges report cash totals to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for its Voluntary Support of Education survey. This reflects immediate cash flow derived from private support, including outright gifts, grants and payments on existing pledges, and best represents fundraising activity in fiscal year 2022.