This year, allies of the UC system such as the Weill Family Foundation and financier Charles Schwab gifted more than $126 million to the university for research initiatives and collaboration.

In November, Joan and Sanford Weill of the Weill Family Foundation gave $106 million to UCSF, UC Berkeley and the University of Washington to establish the Weill Neurohub, a collaboration that seeks to research and develop new treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases, according to a UC news article.

Schwab donated $20 million to form a UCSF-UC Berkeley center dedicated to researching dyslexia, according to the article. The UCSF-UC Berkeley Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center will involve clinical and research efforts on both campuses and was launched to better understand dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental differences that impact learning, according to a UCSF news article.

“These gifts are very generous and significant for Berkeley,” said José Rodríguez, editorial director of University Development and Alumni Relations at UC Berkeley, in an email. “In 2018-19, the campus raised nearly $635 million, thanks to a record 117,315 gifts from 66,234 donors.”

Donations to the UC system varied, ranging from less than $1,000 to more than $1 million, according to Andrew Gordon, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, in an email.

Gordon added that while philanthropic support benefits almost every facet of the UC system, more than 99% of donations are gifted for specific purposes.

“Funding neuroscience is a big-ticket item,” said Dr. S. Andrew Josephson, professor and chair of the department of neurology at UCSF. “We are lucky that we get great funding from private and public grants on a regular basis. It is this type of generosity that really allows all types of wonderful collaborations.”