The University of Vermont Friday announced its largest and most ambitious fundraising campaign ever, a $500 million initiative that will transform and reshape the 224-year-old public research university.

Nearly 60 percent of the $500 million goal is focused on faculty and students. Move Mountains: The Campaign for The University of Vermont will make new investments in endowed faculty positions designed to recruit and retain top scholars to teach and conduct research, as well as new scholarships and graduate fellowships aimed at making a UVM education financially accessible for all qualified students.

The Move Mountains campaign will also make strategic investments to advance UVM’s strongest programs -- in human health, the environment, the humanities, and STEM, among others.  Significant upgrades to selected facilities on campus are planned as well, such as the STEM Complex now under construction, the Alumni House on Summit Street and the UVM Medical Center’s new Inpatient Building.

“The time has come for UVM to move forward, to pursue excellence with even greater confidence and to assert our position among the nation’s finest public research universities,’’ said UVM President Tom Sullivan. “To move mountains is to change lives. This is our passion and our calling.”

Sullivan said the campaign has already raised $247,636,555 of the $500 million goal and Friday capped a two-day “crescendo of giving” that added more than $40 million in new gifts touching nearly every corner of campus. Last year, the UVM Foundation reported its best fundraising year ever, recording $60 million in new gifts to the university. The Move Mountains campaign, which has been in a planning or “silent phase” since 2011, will conclude in 2019.

"We are going to transform this university," Sullivan said. "We stand at a juncture in the history of UVM. Our journey will lead to a place where we are ranked among the nation’s best public research universities."

Friday, the start of UVM’s annual Homecoming and Family Weekend, also included the announcement of the largest single donation in the university’s history, a $20 million gift to the business school from the Grossman Family Foundation.  On Friday afternoon, the UVM Board of Trustees approved renaming the business school as the Grossman School of Business.

“The business school is on the verge of a transformative change and what they need to make the change was the right amount of capital,’’ said Steven Grossman ’61 of his donation to UVM.

Backed by the fundraising of the nonprofit UVM Foundation, which exists solely for the benefit of the university, and in partnership with the UVM Medical Center Foundation, Move Mountains will elevate UVM’s reputation and stature in Vermont and across the nation. The campaign will emphasize growing student scholarships, research, attracting top students, expanding programs, recruiting and retaining faculty and improving facilities -- such as science labs, art studios, classroom space and the Billings Library. For the first time, the university is partnering with the UVM Medical Center, an independent academic research hospital located on campus, for a comprehensive fundraising campaign.

“Joining with the University of Vermont in this campaign is a logical extension of what we’ve been doing for more than 20 years, which is to bring ever closer together our doctors and other providers with the college of medicine and college nursing and health sciences,” said John Brumsted, Chief Executive Officer of The University of Vermont Medical Center and President and Chief Executive Officer of The University of Vermont Health Network. “That combination of a teaching faculty, the colleges, and a research university really is the core of what defines an academic medical center. This fundraising campaign will serve to unify us even more.’’

The new 250,000-square-foot STEM Complex, combined with the research powerhouse of the UVM Medical Center and the UVM College of Medicine, will magnify the already large role that UVM plays in creating jobs and fostering economic development, university leaders said. UVM and the UVM Medical Center already have a direct and indirect impact of more than $2.1 billion annually on the Vermont economy. Combined, the University of Vermont and the UVM Medical Center have the largest population of workers of any employer in the state.

"To me, this fundraising campaign boils down to a single word: excellence," said UVM Foundation Board of Directors chair John A. Hilton, Jr. ‘68, who presided over the campaign announcement at UVM’s Dudley H. Davis Center. "Excellence permeates all we do: our programs, teaching, research, creative activities, athletics and service to the community are all built on a commitment to excellence." He said the UVM Foundation mission is to provide resources to help UVM compete with the nation’s very finest universities.

“This campaign calls attention to two great assets in this community – the University of Vermont and the UVM Medical Center. The idea that they are joined together in this comprehensive campaign is a powerful reminder to all of the resources that enrich our lives daily,’’ said Brian Boardman ’81, chair of the UVM Medical Center Foundation Board.

Founded in 1791, UVM has nearly 10,000 undergraduates from 48 states. There are about 1,300 students in master’s and doctoral programs at the university, including 459 at the College of Medicine. The University of Vermont Medical Center, along with the UVM College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, is one of 138 academic medical centers in the country.

UVM Board of Trustees chair Deborah McAneny thanked her fellow board members for their 100 percent participation as donors to the campaign and for the strong support among other campus leaders, with more than 150 individuals in administrative, academic or volunteer leadership positions across the university showing support through their gifts.

"For this campaign to succeed, we must make a life-changing education available to more students on a campus with world-class teachers and researchers," said McAneny. "We will move mountains to do this."

Other gifts announced Thursday and Friday included:

• $8.9 million from Robert and Helen Larner of Woodland Hills, Calif. to establish the Robert and Helen Larner Medical Education Fund in the College of Medicine.  Dr. Larner is UVM Class of 1939 and earned his MD from UVM in 1942.
• $3.0 million from Daniel and Carole Burack of Harrison, N.Y., to support the programs and activities of UVM Hillel and enhance Jewish life on campus.
• $1.5 million gift-in-kind from J. Brooks Buxton of Jericho, Vt., UVM Class of 1956, who is donating his art collection to the Fleming Museum.
• $1.2 million to support the work of the LGBTQA Center on campus. This includes $875,000 from UVM Foundation Leadership Council member William Meezan, UVM Class of 1967, and his husband, Michael Brittenback; $200,000 from Sanford Friedman, Class of 1973, and his husband Jerry Hipps; and $125,000 from Michael Upton, a member of the College of Medicine, class of 1994.
• $1 million from John and Julia Hilton of Coral Gables, Fla., to establish a Faculty Research Support Endowment and expand the Janus Forum Lecture Series. John Hilton is a 1968 UVM alumnus and chair of the University of Vermont Foundation Board of Directors.
• $1 million from Eugene and Joan Kalkin of Bernardsville, N.J., to fund a professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences. Eugene is a member of the Class of 1950 and chair emeritus of the University of Vermont Foundation. Both Kalkins are former UVM Trustees and hold honorary degrees from the university.
• $1 million from the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation to support the Patient Care Facility project in The UVM Medical Center.
• $900,000 from Gregory N. Sweeny, UVM Class of 1970, to support the civil engineering program in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences with a scholarship, professorship, and program support.
• $500,000 from the university's food services provider, Sodexo, to support the university's Food Systems Initiative.
• $450,000 estate commitment from John Bossange of Burlington to add to the scholarship fund he established to honor the memory of his late wife, Dr. Janet Bossange, a long-time faculty member in the College of Education and Social Services.
• $250,000 from Richard Ader of New York, N.Y., UVM Class of 1963, to support UVM's Alumni House capital project. Ader is a member of the UVM Foundation Board of Directors and Foundation Leadership Council, and chairs the College of Arts & Sciences Advisory Board.
• $250,000 from the Crowley family of Princeton, Mass., to support the student internship program in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
• A gift to endow the men's basketball coaching position from Robert ’90 and Meghan Cioffi ’91.

Watch this video recap of the crescendo of gift announcements made Thursday and Friday:

Move Mountains: A Crescendo of Gift Announcements from UVM Foundation on Vimeo.