UW Tacoma Embarks on Ambitious $45-Million Philanthropic Campaign

The University of Washington Tacoma has launched the public phase of a multi-year fundraising campaign, with a goal of raising $45-million by the year 2020.

UW Tacoma has already raised more than $23 million toward its goal. Funds collected will be used to support student scholarships, hire new faculty, expand community-engaged research and create new programs and facilities.

The theme for the campaign, "For a Greater Tacoma, For a Greater World," reflects UW Tacoma's commitment to the positive transformation of the larger South Sound community. This vision is echoed in the campaign's three main pillars: student success, economic growth, and campus expansion.

"This campaign will make a profound and lasting impact on the people of Tacoma, Pierce and South King counties and the entire Puget Sound region," said Cal Bamford, chairman of the Globe Machine Manufacturing Company and of the campaign volunteer leadership team with his wife, Joanne.

Students will be the principal beneficiaries of the funds raised during the campaign. More than half the total raised will be used to create new and expand existing scholarship endowments, and to expand other forms of financial aid, such as those that address food and housing insecurity or help with students' emergency financial needs

"Funds raised by this campaign will accelerate UW Tacoma's efforts to foster a thriving and equitable society in collaboration with our community," said Chancellor Mark A. Pagano. "Access to higher education is at the core of our urban-serving mission. Through this campaign, our community, which built this university, has the opportunity to transform it for the future."

UW Tacoma's student enrollment has surpassed 5,000 in the 2016-17 academic year, an eight percent growth rate over the previous year. 73 percent of students receive financial aid. New programs recently created or scheduled to come online, in response to community input, and made possible in part by private donor support, include biomedical sciences, community planning, electrical engineering and business analytics. As enrollments continue to grow, campaign gifts will join with public support to not only launch new academic and student support programs, but also develop new facilities within the 46-acre footprint of the UW Tacoma campus.

Campaign chairs are Cal and Joanne Bamford. Co-chairs are Bill Driscoll, Herb Simon and Paula Dana Simon. New Leaders Committee chairs are Debbie Bingham and Loren Cohen. Corporate Committee chairs are KeyBank's Brian Marlow and Columbia Bank's Andy McDonald. Honorary chairs are William W. Philip and James A. Milgard.