When University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg four years ago announced Pitt had raised its goal for gifts and pledges to $2 billion, he put a special focus on attracting money to help pay for scholarships.

Now, Pitt has announced it has raised more than $1.5 billion, counting $175 million for scholarships since 1997-98, more than one-half of that in the last four years.

As a result, Pitt has 458 new endowed scholarships for a total of 875, ranging from a couple of thousand dollars to a full ride. A minimum endowment is $50,000 to provide a $2,000 annual scholarship.

"It meets the very real needs of our students," said Albert J. Novak Jr., Pitt vice chancellor for institutional advancement. "Our families are suffering just like all families in the United States and all over the world, frankly. ... When students make decisions on which schools to attend, the financial resources available is very important to them."

The campaign began with a $500 million goal, which grew to $1 billion in 2002 and was increased to $2 billion in 2006.

There is no announced date for completion.

There has been a wide variety of gifts from about 158,000 donors, nearly half of whom are not alumni. There have been 275 commitments of $1 million or more.

The best year of the campaign was 2007-08, when $183 million was raised. That year, Pitt received the largest donation by an individual in its history, a gift of $41.3 million from alumnus and Ansys Inc. founder John Swanson.

In addition, Mr. Novak said, "We had two eight-figure gifts from the Gates Foundation. We also had a wonderful gift from Richard King Mellon that year. It was a pretty incredible year that year."

New gifts and pledges totaled $103.3 million in 2008-09 and $102.6 million in 2009-10.

Some other initiatives that have been helped by the campaign include:

• The number of endowed faculty chairs or professorships has grown by 109, for a total of 183.

• The number of endowed graduate fellowships has grown by 34 for a total of 92.

• Pitt has 672 new named endowments providing faculty and student resources for projects, research, books and other purposes.

• Donations helped to pay for capital projects. Over 10 years, Pitt has completed 1,751 capital improvement projects at a cost of $1.14 billion.

Pitt officials said the university remains committed to the statement of aspiration made in 2002: "By aggressively supporting the advancement of Pitt's academic mission, we will clearly and consistently demonstrate that this is one of the finest and most productive universities in the world."

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