DALLAS — Jan. 15, 2008 — UT Southwestern’s current campaign, which was officially launched in April 2002 after a two-year “quiet phase,” is the most ambitious fundraising effort in Dallas history. As of the designated closing date of the campaign — Dec. 31, 2007 — more than $740 million has been given and pledged by more than 600 generous donors.

	Harold and Annette Simmons

The largest previous fundraising drive by UT Southwestern was for its Fund for Molecular Research. That campaign, begun in 1992 and completed in 1995, surpassed its $150 million goal by $15 million. At the time it was the largest fundraising effort for research ever undertaken by an American medical school and the largest private-donor campaign ever conducted in Dallas.

The Innovations in Medicine campaign set a goal three times higher than the earlier effort, and yielded more than four times as much.

The campaign was chaired by William T. Solomon. Honorary chairs included Amy and Lee Fikes, Nancy B. Hamon, Mrs. Eugene McDermott, Deborah and Tex Moncrief, Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr., Margot and Ross Perot, Margaret and Bob Rogers, Sarah and Charles E. Seay, Annette and Harold Simmons, and Cecil H. Green (who died shortly after the campaign began). A group of 120 volunteer civic leaders constituted the campaign’s Steering Committee and Leadership Council.

A total of 130 donors have contributed $1 million or more to UT Southwestern’s Innovations in Medicine campaign, with 25 of these donating $5 million or more.  Four donors gave $50 million or more to the campaign, including a record-setting $125 million commitment from Mr. and Mrs. Harold Simmons and the Harold Simmons Foundation.  Other contributors at the $50 million level included the Perot Foundation, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

 

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