Notre Dame Annual Fund

Why give to the Annual Fund?

Higher education is a costly enterprise. In fact, Notre Dame’s operating budget is around $700 million this year. That’s a big figure, sure, but consider this:

Notre Dame enrolls some 11,000 students annually.
It operates more than 135 degree programs, as well as research centers; athletic, social, and recreational programs; and critical student services such as health care and counseling.
It has more than 4,000 people in its employ, from professors to administrators to dining hall staff.
Its campus consists of 137 buildings on 1,250 acres—not to mention satellite campuses in Dublin, London, and Rome.

Funding the Notre Dame Experience

Notre Dame’s endowment covers only a portion of the annual expenditures associated with operating a world-class university. The shortfall is made up, in part, by generous gifts to the Notre Dame Annual Fund. Such gifts afford Notre Dame the necessary resources and flexibility to support core priorities—and to provide our students with the richest possible Notre Dame experience.

In recent years, Annual Fund gifts have helped to boost funding for student scholarships—thereby enabling the University to meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students. In doing so, your gifts help turn Notre Dame “dreams” into reality for talented young people who can’t afford to come here without assistance.

Academic and student life programs also benefit from unrestricted giving. Annual Fund gifts make it possible to create new academic programming, enhance library holdings, nurture students’ faith through Campus Ministry, and provide opportunities for cultural and artistic engagement, including through the Marching Band, Glee Club, Chorale, and student-operated media such as the campus television station, radio station, and Scholastic magazine.

Every gift matters. Make yours today.