How BrownTogether redefined the student experience

Collectively, BrownTogether donors gave more than $728 million toward financial aid—including more than 400 new endowed financial aid funds for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. This helped move the University closer toward its promise: to make a Brown education accessible and affordable to accomplished students from the widest possible range of backgrounds. 

In 2017, Brown launched The Brown Promise, an initiative to remove all loans from the University’s undergraduate financial aid awards for domestic students—making it easier for those from moderate-income households to choose Brown. In less than three months, donors spanning all ages and backgrounds had contributed the $30 million needed to put the initiative into effect for returning and incoming students starting in the 2018-19 academic year. The ambitious $120 million total fundraising goal was exceeded in 2023, fully endowing the Brown Promise and ensuring the sustainability of the financial aid initiative for generations to come. With more than $129.3 million raised so far, The Brown Promise has helped bring more than 5,147 students (and counting) to Brown.

Campaign dollars also helped Brown expand support for U.S. military veterans. One year ahead of schedule, the University announced in 2023 that it had reached its goal of doubling student veteran enrollment and surpassed its $25 million goal in endowed gifts—permanently funding full scholarships for undergraduate student veterans.

Brown has long sought out the best and brightest students from around the world. Thanks to the generosity of BrownTogether donors who helped raise $120 million, the University launched need-blind admission for all undergraduate international students beginning with the Class of 2029.

“Figuring out how to pay for a college education can be incredibly daunting for many families and, sadly, can result in some tough conversations and decisions,” says Frederic M. Alper Dean of Financial Aid Sean Ferns. “With these investments, my team is having fewer and fewer of those conversations. Being able to tell these students and their families that they can attend Brown and graduate debt-free or with limited debt is the true highlight of our work.”

The campaign helped transform the University’s approach to career services with the launch of the Center for Career Exploration in 2023. The center has helped empower and enable students to engage in career planning with the same spirit of exploration that permeates their academic pursuits. With more funding for experiential learning, additional staffing, and expanded career advising tailored to a wider range of industry pathways, the campaign has helped provide students with robust programs that better equip them for the evolving opportunities and challenges of the workforce of today.

With BrownTogether, the University also extended Brown’s educational philosophy beyond the classroom. Just as generations of students have discovered new interests through the Open Curriculum, Brown is giving students the tools and resources to prepare for fulfilling lives and careers after graduation.

“Four years at Brown can go by fast. By deeply integrating career exploration into the student experience, our students can get the most out of their time here—exploring their curiosities and building the skills they’ll need to engage in high impact and meaningful careers,” says Matt Donato, executive director of the Center for Career Exploration.

Since the campaign began, it has been instrumental in the success of BrownConnect—a program that connects students with internships, research opportunities, and job openings offered by alumni, parents, and friends of Brown. Now known as BrownConnect+, this initiative has grown by leaps and bounds—allowing Brunonians to tap into the power of the Brown network.

Athletics has long been an integral part of life at Brown, helping to build strong students and a strong community. With investments from BrownTogether, we’ve been able to strengthen the student-athlete experience and give our teams the competitive edge they need.

“Brown offers one of the most empowering, student-centric experiences in higher education. In Athletics and Recreation, we are proud to embrace and embody that spirit, allowing our intercollegiate athletics program—one of the largest in the country—to become more competitive, more transformative, and more uniquely Brown,” says M. Grace Calhoun ’92, Ph.D., the Chancellor Samuel M. Mencoff ’78 Vice President for Athletics and Recreation. 

In addition to the gift from Chancellor Emeritus Sam Mencoff and his wife Ann to endow Calhoun’s position, there were many signature gifts to athletics initiatives during the campaign, including the establishment of 22 endowed head coach and assistant coaching positions, the Excellence in Athletics Fund, Florence and Gloria Miner Sports Psychology and Mental Health in Athletics Endowed Fund, the Coaches Leadership Fund, and the Joseph Edelman and Pamela Keld '83 Fund for Women's Athletics.

Over $314 million was raised for Athletics and Recreation during the BrownTogether campaign. More than $138 million was dedicated to capital projects for new facilities and renovations. When construction of the new Indoor Turf Facility is complete in January 2026, Brown will have a fully donor-funded $70 million, 76,000-square-foot, year-round space for varsity teams, club sports, intramurals, and a host of community wellness programs.

This generous philanthropic support provides opportunities for everyone on campus, from student-athletes competing at the highest level to students, faculty, and staff trying a sport or fitness activity for the first time. Investment in recreational programming and facilities, as well as significant outreach efforts in the community, helped to increase overall undergraduate engagement in recreation activities to a record 92% last year.

Calhoun says she’s not surprised by the generosity of loyal Brown Bears. “This philanthropic investment supports the work of all of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff. We are able to recruit terrific people and provide the essential resources for them to succeed and flourish at Brown, while supporting campus wellness for all through our reimagined recreational programming.”

A diverse community of learners and scholars is essential for the advancement of academic excellence. In 2016, Brown launched Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University (known as the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, or DIAP), which outlines Brown’s commitment that all members of our community are provided with equal opportunities to thrive at Brown. Over the course of the campaign, BrownTogether donors have helped support this goal.

The University has continued to invest in programming, space, and staffing for student centers, such as the Brown Center for Students of Color, Global Brown Center for International Students, the LGBTQ Center, the Office of Military-Affiliated Students, and the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center. One of the earliest achievements of the campaign was the opening of a center geared toward first generation and low-income students, the first center of its kind in the country. Named the U-FLi Center, it expanded its scope to also provide resources related to undocumented students.

“Helping students navigate these new horizons of life at Brown and find their place here is only part of our mission,” said Julio Reyes ’12 MA’22, inaugural director of the U-FLi Center. “We work on helping students realize that their lived experience is not a weakness, but a unique strength to be harnessed. We’ve seen these students have such a heightened sense of pride in their identity.”

During the campaign, the University introduced several new giving opportunities within the Brown Annual Fund that allow donors to directly support Brown’s academic mission through diversity and inclusion initiatives, including:

• Pathways to Diversity & Inclusion Fund: enhancing the experience of students through creative programming and opportunities.
• Inman Page Black Alumni Council (IPC) Brown Annual Fund Scholarship: providing financial aid with a preference for talented Black and African American students at Brown.
• Mercedes Domenech Brown University Latino Alumni Council (BULAC) Brown Annual Fund Scholarship: providing financial aid with a preference for talented Latinx students at Brown, named after the longtime director of admissions who helped diversify Brown’s student body.

While Brown has been transformed by BrownTogether, our work is not done. Plans are already underway to permanently fund the need-blind admission policy for international students.

We strive to broaden and deepen the impact of research, discovery and innovation, while strengthening education and career preparation for students. And we will continue to compete for the best students, faculty, and staff, while strengthening life on campus and engaging our full community in advancing the excellence of Brown.