Brandeis Magazine

The Brandeis community demonstrated its commitment to the university over the past year, as thousands of alumni, friends, families, corporations, and foundations offered their support, exceeding last year’s fundraising totals by 70% and making fiscal year 2022 the most successful since 2008.

$94 million: That’s how much the Brandeis community gave from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

$18 million was given to endow six professorships in five different areas of the curriculum.

15,000 donors gave gifts from $1 to $100,000, totaling almost $15 million.

Large gifts, major impact: 22 donors made gifts of $1 million or more.

6,300 alumni contributed $43 million.

2,300 parents and families gave nearly $8 million.

2,197 students attend with the help of scholarship donors.

When you make a gift to Brandeis, you ensure current and future generations of Brandeisians can take advantage of all the academic, professional, and community engagement opportunities the university offers. To be part of this community, visit giving.brandeis.edu/generous, and make an impact today.

As the university nears its milestone 75th anniversary, the Brandeis National Committee — a membership organization founded alongside the university in 1948, with the mission of helping ensure Brandeis’ growth and strength — is galvanizing support for the Brandeis Library through a new campaign, The Legacy of Louis: Inspiring Inquiry.

First, the BNC is fundraising for the creation of a research archive of original letters, photographs, and documents, and a display of family objects, that shed light on the life and lasting contributions of Justice Louis D. Brandeis. The effort will also include the creation of a detailed online inventory of the Justice Brandeis collection, to make infor­mation about the items accessible to laypeople as well as students and scholars conducting academic research.

Sisters Susan Popkin Cahn, Anne Brandeis Popkin, and Louisa Brandeis Popkin — who are Brandeis’ great-granddaughters — donated many of the materials that will be part of the collection.

“We hope these objects help students, faculty, researchers, and the public learn about Louis D. Brandeis the person,” says Cahn, “so they’ll be inspired to go on to make their own contributions to society.”

Second, the BNC is raising funds to build a library space that encourages cross-campus dialogues about the founding principles of Brandeis, which are rooted in Jewish values.

The space, tentatively called the Judaica Reading Commons, will provide the Brandeis community with a place to engage with Jewish texts outside typical classroom and religious environments. The “more neutral setting” is critical, says Judaica librarian Rachel Greenblatt, because it will help connect students of all backgrounds to Jewish concepts.

By presenting Jewish texts alongside writings from many other cultural and religious traditions, the room will be a boon to scholars and will also be a place “where someone can just be curious,” Greenblatt says.

“I want people to feel welcome to sit, study, and gather without the pressure of grades, which will encourage informal interactions with the subject matter and with one another,” says Greenblatt. The new space “is meant to be a comfortable place that nudges people to think about what it means to be a university founded by and in service to the American Jewish community.”

With more than 21,000 members and 37 chapters nationwide, the BNC is the largest friends-of-a-library group in the world. It has contributed more than $210 million to the university since its inception, and has been instrumental to Brandeis’ growth as well as its commitment to its founding values.

The campaign to support the Justice Brandeis collection and the Judaica Reading Commons launched in September and will run for two years. Visit giving.brandeis.edu/louis to learn more.

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.’” It’s a simple sentiment, but one at the heart of the Brandeis community.

This aphorism has guided us from our earliest days. When the university was founded in 1948, an intrepid enclave of “foster alumnae” banded together to turn the idea of a nonsectarian research university, welcoming to all, into reality. Their effort gave rise to the Brandeis National Committee, which fundraised for the creation of the Brandeis Library, put the millionth book on its shelves years later, and continues to support the university in myriad ways. (Read about the BNC’s latest campaign in the story above.)

Sustained support over time — from friends, alumni, families, and foundations — has made Brandeis what it is. Now, nearly 75 years after our founding, the collective impact of our community’s ongoing generosity remains ever-present, shaping what Brandeis will be tomorrow and for generations to come.

I’ll share just three examples. A recent $18 million investment from six benefactors, including three alumnae, established six endowed professorships across multiple disciplines. Such a surge of support within a matter of months is truly unprecedented and will serve as a major boon for our long-term academic priorities. This extraordinary generosity led to a banner fundraising year, in which the university raised a remarkable $94 million.

To honor a beloved classmate, the Class of 1986 came together to build out a beautiful outdoor space that will serve as a gathering spot for generations of Brandeisians to come. Class members hope the Barbra Barth Feldman ’86 Circle will honor the woman for whom it is named by creating a new place where students can congregate to laugh, share ideas, and enjoy one another’s company.

Finally, there’s Giving DEISday, which has emerged as one of our favorite ways to support Brandeis annually. In October, close to 2,200 members of our community raised nearly $900,000, with the majority of the funds supporting student scholarships and financial aid.

At Brandeis, we have always believed great things are possible. Like the philanthropy that ensures we flourish, Brandeis is greater than the sum of its parts. As we prepare to celebrate 75 years of doing what “can’t be done,” we give thanks for the confidence, commitment, and generosity shown by you, our partners and stewards.

Gratefully,

Hannah Peters
Interim Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement