UMass Amherst announces ‘Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst’ fundraiser

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) – UMass Amherst announced a $600 million fundraising campaign to help expand educational access and advance progress for the common good.

The University said that the "Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst," is the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the university's 161-year history. So far, over $452 million has been raised from more than 98,000 donors. They say that the most amount is expected to come from alumni, parents, and friends.

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"Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst" includes the following transformative lead gifts from donors:

A $21.5 million naming gift from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation to the College of Nursing is supporting student scholarships, an endowed professorship, the work of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, and mentoring and research initiatives that create access and equity for nursing students from a variety of backgrounds.

A $20 million pledge by Douglas '71 and Diana Berthiaume to the Isenberg School of Management to create endowed faculty positions, endowed doctoral fellowships, a new behavioral research laboratory and expanded faculty research at the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship. "UMass Amherst provided me a remarkable education which opened doors that led to an extremely successful professional life, so I want to give back," said Doug Berthiaume, who is among the biggest supporters of the university and served as a co-chair of the "UMass Rising" campaign.

A $10 million gift from Jerome '60 and Linda Paros to endow the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research at UMass Amherst, a center of excellence where students and faculty conduct high-impact research projects in atmospheric sciences, distributed geophysical sensing, and hazard warning and mitigation to revolutionize the nation's ability to forecast, plan and respond to climate and weather events.

"This campaign will enable our faculty and students to continue to ask the boldest questions, lean into the most pressing challenges, and expand the boundaries of knowledge through pioneering research, innovation and scholarship," says Chancellor Javier Reyes. "Building upon a sustained legacy of excellence, we will fuel the future of UMass Amherst's leadership across the commonwealth and beyond."

"Every day, our faculty and students are leading change and shaping our world for the better with breakthroughs and innovation in the natural and social sciences, engineering, health care, and computation, as well as in the arts and humanities," says Provost Fouad Abd-El-Khalick. "Through this campaign, we seek visionary and passionate partners who will help propel the work of our talented people and amplify their impact globally."

"The goals set forth for this campaign are ambitious," says UMAF President Arwen Duffy. "But the collective power of our community makes them achievable. Alumni cherish their ties to the university, carry that pride with them, and bring inspiring energy to serving as ambassadors for UMass Amherst."

The campaign is led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation (UMAF) which aims to support revolutionizing access to higher education, growing investment in cutting-edge research, teaching and creative endeavors, and magnifying the university's impact on the common good. To donate to the campaign visit accelerateumass.org .

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