VCU’s Unlocking Potential campaign seeks to raise $1.838 billion to support students, faculty, researchers, academic programs, learning centers and the university and health system strategic plans. The campaign continues through June 30, 2030, and is organized around four primary pillars. Here’s a by-the-numbers primer:

$1.838 billion

The monetary goal of Unlocking Potential is built on the four primary pillars listed below. It's also an Easter egg for Richmond history buffs. VCU was created in 1968 out of the closing of Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia. The latter formed as an independent institution in 1854 but was born as the medical department of Hampden-Sydney College on Nov. 3, 1838. Classes were held in the since-torn-down Union Hotel at the corner of 19th and Main streets in Shockoe Bottom. (The iconic Egyptian Building was built in 1845).

$284 million for student support

The campaign aims to raise $284 million for an array of student support efforts, including scholarships, study abroad opportunities and VCU’s Internship Funding Program, which provides money to undergraduates completing unpaid internships. “We are aspiring to be an exemplary institution that is also an access institution,” says Hernan Bucheli, Ed.D., VCU’s vice president for strategic enrollment management and student success. 

“Scholarships are mission-critical for students to complete their degree,” he says. “College affordability is in the forefront of families’ thinking in terms of where they’re going to go to school and how they’re going to graduate. [And] every student should be able to have an internship opportunity guaranteed in their curriculum. Every student should be able to have a career plan so that they can not only graduate on time but also have a meaningful job after they graduate.”

$561 million for innovative research

Over the past decade, VCU research activity has soared, notably in health, education and engineering. Sponsored research funded by federal institutions, nonprofits and foundations increased from $271 million in 2018 to $568 million in 2025. “We are now at a pivotal moment where we are poised to do so much more, but further investments are necessary to continue with this trajectory — especially in areas like the arts, STEM, the humanities, social sciences and the health sciences,” says P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., vice president for research and innovation. 

“The success of VCU’s Unlocking Potential campaign means that we will be able to continue to invest in both our current research teams and recruit the best and brightest faculty researchers and inventors across the globe, increase the impact and scope of our research and, most importantly, save and improve more lives in Richmond, [in] Virginia, and across the country and the world,” he says.

$207 million for faculty recruitment, retention and scholarship

As of the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year, VCU has 279 endowed faculty positions (meaning the position and its occupant’s work are permanently funded through an endowment gift). By the end of the campaign, that number could be much higher. Donors, for example, established 62 endowed chairs and professorships during VCU’s last philanthropic campaign.

“Endowed chairs are critical because they [are] essentially an inexhaustible well of resources faculty can use to dip into year after year to pursue their ideas and make sure the research they do generates more research, bigger ideas and new ideas,” says Marlon Levy, M.D., senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences and CEO of VCU Health System. “And for our students to do well, one of the key ingredients is they need to have the right teachers. Endowed faculty have the resources to be unchained from the grant cycle — whether their research will be funded or whether there’s cuts to federal funding — and those funds for research, educational work and the exploration of ideas [also] allow faculty a lot of freedom to focus on students.”

$786 for institutional excellence and national prominance

This pillar covers everything from VCU Libraries and intercollegiate athletics to financial assistance funds for VCU Health patients and strategic projects across VCU’s 17 schools and colleges. It’s also the pillar that overlaps most with the others, says VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D.. “Institutional excellence is intentionally broad because it captures the essential elements that allow VCU to thrive as both a research university and an academic medical center,” Rao says. “It covers the core resources that keep VCU strong and make the other areas of discovery, education and health care possible.”