U of T’s Defy Gravity Campaign Passes Major Milestones

Launched in 2021, U of T’s Defy Gravity campaign – designed to fuel innovation and collaboration on urgent global challenges – is the largest fundraising and alumni engagement initiative in Canadian history.

Inspired by the University of Toronto’s vision for inclusive excellence, the campaign set two significant goals. Its target for alumni engagement, a first for the university, is to motivate 225,000 alumni to get involved as volunteers, mentors, donors and leaders – and encourage them to contribute collectively to the university one million times.

The campaign’s fundraising goal seeks to raise $4 billion for the university’s highest priorities, including financial support for students, the recruitment of top-notch faculty from around the world, new state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities and funding to tackle global problems, such as climate change and chronic disease.

Last December, the university marked two major milestones. More than 170,000 alumni had engaged with the university more than 770,000 times, achieving 75 per cent of the campaign’s alumni engagement goal ahead of schedule. Additionally, the campaign had raised $2.054 billion, with contributions from more than 54,000 donors in 86 countries. This includes a transformational $250-million donation – the largest single gift in Canadian history – from the Temerty family to U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, to support advances in health care. By the end of March, these numbers had continued to climb, with alumni engagement surpassing 175,000 and total funds raised reaching $2.225 billion.

“I am in awe of how our community has come together to help us achieve these incredible milestones,” says U of T President Meric Gertler. “During a time of immense uncertainty and global unrest, Defy Gravity reminds us that people turn to the University of Toronto as a source of knowledge, innovation, resilience and leadership.”

Through their involvement with the campaign, U of T alumni are helping to advance key university priorities, such as building international partnerships, growing Toronto’s innovation ecosystem, recruiting the brightest students and creating professional networks for students and recent graduates.

“U of T alumni are engaged in every aspect of the university’s academic mission,” says Som Seif (BASc 1999), a campaign co-chair. “It’s an inspiring testament to their faith in the institution and its people. Their involvement greatly enriches the experience of our students, faculty members and programs in countless ways.” A record 23,000 alumni have served as volunteers and mentors during the campaign, sharing their time and experiences and offering guidance to students.

Since the campaign’s inception, donors have given $339 million for student support across disciplines ranging from education to medicine to musicology. More than 16,000 donors have contributed to student awards, strengthening U of T’s commitment to remaining one of the most accessible, top-ranked universities in the world – and the country’s largest engine of social mobility and progress. “With its bold message of inclusive excellence, hope and optimism in the face of mounting barriers to equitable opportunity, Defy Gravity has been a tremendous catalyst,” says Claire Kennedy (BASc 1989), a campaign co-chair.

Donors have also contributed $222 million to support faculty positions, including establishing the Don Harrison Chair in AI and Technology at the Faculty of Law, the Michael and Virginia Walsh Chair in History of Philosophy, and a chair in Jain Studies at U of T Mississauga. These chairs help the university attract top faculty from around the world.

The campaign has helped create new hubs for research and innovation, such as the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, where world-leading experts are working to ensure AI is safe and aligned with human values; the Sam Ibrahim Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership at U of T Scarborough; the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport, a global centre of excellence for high-performance sport science and medicine; and the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, the first hub for educating health professionals in eastern Toronto, expected to open in 2026.

Defy Gravity donors have also committed $709 million for groundbreaking research in a wide range of fields. “It has been truly exciting to witness how donors are equipping researchers with the resources they need to deepen our understanding of the world – and tackle the many urgent challenges confronting it,” says Brian Lawson (BA 1982 Trinity), a campaign co-chair and the chancellor of Trinity College.

Other gifts have supported the construction of new buildings, such as the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, which will house Canada’s largest concentration of student- and faculty-led startups, and the New Science Building at U of T Mississauga, which contains state-of-the-art wet labs, a high-performance computing data centre and other advanced tools to enable pioneering life sciences research.

The outpouring of generosity from our global community of alumni and donors is truly inspiring.”

“These are not just bricks and mortar,” says John M. Cassaday (MBA 1981), a campaign co-chair. “They anchor and enrich the experience of our students and faculty, they tangibly advance life-changing research, they spark collaboration and understanding, and they become landmarks that contribute measurably to the public realm.” Donors have given $427 million to infrastructure projects across the three campuses.

“The outpouring of generosity from our global community of alumni and donors is truly inspiring,” says David Palmer, vice-president, advancement. “They demonstrate how visionary philanthropy can lift a university to a new level of excellence and, ultimately, elevate our society.”

The campaign theme, Defy Gravity, reflects U of T’s history of advancing knowledge by working collaboratively across disciplines and borders in a diverse and inclusive community that encourages students to think big and challenge the status quo.

U of T Chancellor Wes Hall says he has been reminded since taking office last July of the creativity, fearlessness and inclusive spirit the U of T community brings to its endeavours. “I can’t wait to see where Defy Gravity takes us next.”