Throughout 2018 and 2019, the California State University system broke records for donations and philanthropic support. The CSU system received $569 million in gifts from more than 286,000 donors across the state.

 In the Donor Support report, California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White stated, “These champions of higher education recognize the life-changing opportunities provided by a CSU degree, and they share our commitment to ensuring that these opportunities are available to students from all walks of life. Our donors are confident that their support is a worthy, valued and consequential investment in the future of California and the betterment of the world we live in.”

According to the Donor report, only 2% of charitable gifts are “unrestricted,” meaning that the remaining 98% are designated to go toward scholarships, student research opportunities, programs that support student success, and awards that recognize student and faculty excellence. This support provides integral funding for student scholarships across the CSU system.

Of all the gifts received throughout 2018 and 2019, the highest was gifted to San Francisco State. The university received two rounds of $25 million in response to its “Bold Thinking” campaign. One of the two donations came from alumni and key benefactors, George and Judy Marcus, in support of the San Francisco States Liberal Arts program. The other donation came from alumni and Ripple co-founder, Chris Larsen, in the form of cryptocurrency. This donation is the first of its kind and supports the entrepreneurship of fintech ecosystems at San Francisco State.   

An anonymous donor committed $50 million in a planned gift to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in response to their campaign “Learn by Doing”. By the year 2020, San Luis Obispo hopes to raise $700 million. Following those ground-breaking donations came CSU Bakersfield with $7.4 million and Cal State East Bay following with $7 million. 

Nearly all of the Cal State Universities received substantial gifts in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, contributing to the record-breaking $569 million. These gifts continue to support a plethora of awards, projects, scholarships, and programs that enhance student success. Sonoma State received $2.2 million from four different local donors to go toward the Educational Opportunity Program, EOP. According to an article posted in 2017, Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation raised $1.7 million over the last five years, funding $10,000, four-year scholarships for new EOP students. In addition to that, the money also went toward hiring a full-time EOP advisor to support students, in addition to hiring a part-time “entrepreneur-in-residence” who develops hands-on learning opportunities and projects.

Rodney Strong Vineyards gifted $250,000 to create a “Rodney Strong Pathways” program to support EOP students. $50,000 was gifted by Cooperage 12 over the last five years in the form of scholarships. Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria gifted $270,000 in support of a Summer Bridge orientation program for incoming EOP students. In the article written about the donations in 2017, Graton Chairman Greg Sarris stated, “The Tribe wants to do what it can to support the success of students who might otherwise have difficulty staying in college.” 

According to an article posted in October of 2019, SSU received a commitment of $2.85 million to expand the environmental education of the Fairfield Osborn Preserve.