Temple raised a record $214 million in the last fiscal year. Some of the money will support students during a budget crunch

Temple University, which faces a budget deficit and challenging financial headwinds, received a record amount of donations in the last fiscal year, putting the institution ahead of its fundraising goals in the first full year under the leadership of a new president.

The North Philadelphia school received $214 million in donations in fiscal year 2026, more than 60% greater than the prior year’s annual fundraising total and well ahead of its goal of $160 million.

Included in that total and achieved during president John Fry’s tenure are major donations, including the single largest gift the school has received, $55 million from university trustee Christopher Barnett to rename the College of Public Health, and a substantial but undisclosed amount from Jane Creamer Sullivan to establish a new honors college, which will enroll students beginning in fall 2027.

They were among 38 donors who gave $1 million or more to the university, up from 24 the year before.

» READ MORE: Temple University receives record $55 million gift from an alum who almost didn’t get accepted

Fry in an interview credited a new fundraising chief, a strategic plan with clear fundraising goals, and the involvement of deans and other senior leaders in the fundraising process at Temple, which enrolls 33,000 students across its U.S. and international campuses.

“The difference from where we were in late ’24 to today is kind of night and day,“ Fry said. ”Our priorities as an institution are clearer. … We have a lot of engagement from our deans and senior leadership and trustees, and I think we’re developing a much more disciplined approach to donor relationships."

The increased fundraising comes at a pivotal time for Temple, allowing it to invest in academics and student supports while also coping with a budget crunch. The university laid off about 40 employees earlier this month as part of an effort to close what now stands as a $25.5 million deficit in the 2026-27 budget.

» READ MORE: Temple University will lay off employees and raise tuition for the second consecutive year

Fry noted that the school cannot use donor funds to plug the deficit because they are restricted, but said the money allows the school to continue to invest.

“The philanthropy that we’re able to to garner right now allows us to address priorities that we wouldn’t be able to address otherwise,” Fry said.

The Barnett gift, for example, has helped create an “essential needs hub” to help support students who are struggling with financial and other needs.

Next for the university is the public launch of what is likely to be a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign kicking off in the next two years and concluding in 2034, when the school celebrates its 150th anniversary. Temple already has raised $340 million during the quiet phase of that campaign, including the $214 million raised in the last fiscal year.

» READ MORE: Temple has released its plan for the next decade. See what the North Philadelphia university has in mind.

“This is no declaration of victory,” Fry said. “I think it’s a declaration of progress. … It’s a good, strong start.”

» READ MORE: Temple University will lay off employees and raise tuition for the second consecutive year

Fry identified fundraising as an area for reform at Temple almost as soon as he arrived, saying that a school of Temple’s stature with more than 380,000 living alumni — more than half of whom live and work in the region — should be raising more than it was.

He said at the time there was no reason that Temple should not be in the same league as schools such as the University of Delaware, which had announced a gift in excess of $71 million. Pennsylvania State University, which has more than twice the enrollment of Temple, announced earlier this month that it had raised $662.7 million in 2025-26.

The university’s previous fundraising record was $133 million in fiscal year 2025, and prior to Fry’s arrival in November 2024, Temple raised about $95 million annually on average from 2014 to 2024, the school said.

Fry hired Al Checcio, who previously led fundraising at the University of Southern California and Fordham University, to assess the university’s fundraising operation. Checcio had previously assisted Fry with fundraising at Drexel when Fry led that university, and he had worked at Temple in the 1990s under the late president Peter Liacouras.

Impressed with Checcio’s assessment, Fry appointed him as interim fundraising leader in March 2025 and in September named him senior vice president for institutional advancement.

“I’ve always felt that the Temple alumni base was so untapped,” Checcio said. “They have a lot of pride in the institution, but maybe not as much pride in how the university has interacted with them.”

To bolster success, Checcio said, fundraising had to become a university-wide priority, with deans, healthcare leaders, and other university leaders all playing a role. It takes vision, leadership, and relationship-building, he said.

That is all happening, including visits by Fry to donors around the world, and donors are reacting positively, Checcio said in an interview.

“We’re communicating clearly what our vision for the university is, and we’re doing a lot of work tying institutional priorities into donor interests,“ he said. ”We’re very pleased with our early progress. We think it’s a real sign of things to come.”

He said the university has the potential to continue raising more than $200 million annually or even more.

“We think we have a really, really high ceiling,” he said.

Among other large gifts from alumni in 2025-26 were $5 million from Richard and Amy Oller to the law school and $3 million from investment adviser and author Joslyn G. Ewart to endow the dean’s post for the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts.

Fry said both gifts met several goals in the strategic plan.

The Oller gift “promotes student success because it has scholarships and fellowships and experiential learning opportunities embedded in it,” he said. “It also strengthens faculty excellence by supporting an endowed chair and monies for bringing distinguished scholars to campus.”