Illinois Tech Receives $8 Million Anonymous Gift to Support Scholarships
In fall 2022, Illinois Institute of Technology announced a historic $1 billion fundraising goal for Power the Difference: Our Campaign for Illinois Tech through what has now been dubbed the “Billion Dollar Sermon.”
Since the announcement, Illinois Tech has taken significant strides toward the billion-dollar goal and raised nearly $430 million to date, in addition to celebrating the fifth-most successful fundraising year in university history in 2023–24. As part of this recent success, the university received a generous $8 million gift from an anonymous donor to support the Power the Difference campaign.
The extraordinarily generous contribution has been allocated to Illinois Tech’s The Chicago Difference initiative and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering to help significantly enhance the university’s capacity to foster academic excellence and community transformation.
The donation aims to support The Chicago Difference by helping enhance student scholarships and bolster initiatives such as the Empowerment, Leadership, and Mentorship (ELM) Program, which allows students to support each other in an organically grown mentor network. It will also support the Elevate program, which connects students with hands-on learning opportunities, and establishes a student emergency fund for The Chicago Difference to provide financial assistance to students in urgent need. Additionally, the gift will provide the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering with funding for student and postdoctoral fellowships, as well as the procurement of state-of-the-art research equipment and software, ensuring that Illinois Tech continues to be at the forefront of innovation in engineering education.
“This visionary investment provides an opportunity for the university to continue building upon its founding purpose,” says Beth Campbell, Illinois Tech’s interim vice president for advancement. “The Power the Difference campaign strengthens how our students live, study, work, create, and innovate together. It is inspiring to know that our community recognizes that the technological transformation of higher education creates an exciting potential for Illinois Tech’s future growth and is excited to rally around this important cause.”
This gift represents an important milestone in the university’s ongoing journey to redefine the landscape of tech-focused education and community engagement. Not only will it enhance Illinois Tech’s research and educational capabilities, but it will also deepen our commitment to the inclusivity and empowerment of our community. It is an investment for a brighter and more equitable future, fueling the next generation of inclusive innovation and diverse leadership in Chicago and beyond.
In addition to this recent $8 million donation, Illinois Tech has celebrated a great deal of progress over the last two years since relaunching the campaign, including the development of cutting-edge spaces to facilitate world-leading research such as the Trimble Technology Lab and the Adrian (EE '70) and Lorna Nemcek Lab; a gift from Keysight Technologies to modernize the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Walter L. and Virginia B. Cherry Electronics Laboratory through state-of-the-art testing and measurement equipment; and a $2 million gift from Alphawood Foundation Chicago to bring the university’s landscape to new heights by making Mies Campus the first arboretum on Chicago’s South Side.
The Power the Difference campaign demonstrates the university’s unwavering commitment to its mission: to uplift people of all backgrounds with an education that will help meet the needs of the age and to empower the next generation of leaders to seek solutions to better themselves, Chicago, and the world. To learn more, please visit iit.edu/giving.