Why Give?

Setting the Stage for the Future

Binghamton University enjoys a national reputation for excellence, but our past achievements will not assure our success in the future. Known for the talents and scholarly contributions of our faculty, the selectivity and achievements of our students and the dedication and ingenuity of our staff, Binghamton University wants to become an even more vital and vibrant home to discovery, education and engagement.

Accomplishing this vision will require support from within and from outside the University. As state and federal resources are further stretched, Binghamton University looks more and more to the Binghamton University Foundation to complement its resources with private philanthropy.

Why Binghamton?

• A premier public university
  The synergy created at Binghamton between teaching and research yields astounding ideas and solutions for some of the world's greatest challenges. Our students benefit from their ability to engage in undergraduate research and from having first-rate scholars and researchers in the classroom. Additionally, our faculty members draw energy and new ideas from their interactions with these bright students. We're such a young institution, yet with our accomplishments we've set ourselves apart as a premier public university.
• Our strong liberal-arts education
  A liberal-arts education has been the core of the Binghamton experience since Harpur College - the only public liberal-arts college in New York at the time - was founded. This tradition exists today in the exceptional people who teach at Binghamton, as well as in every academic and professional discipline at the University. Our faculty foster success in their students by expecting them to be broad and curious thinkers.
• Our integrated living and learning environment
  Our unique residential community system, based on the Oxford model, engages students and faculty mentors in a transcendent experience, stimulates academic inquiry and promotes relationships - all of which create powerful connections for students before and after graduation. At Binghamton, we believe our students will succeed; the rigor and support of the living and learning environment manifests itself throughout the University - from the interdisciplinary culture of its research engine to the ways laboratories are constructed to foster collaboration.
• Our internationalization and diversity
  The University's comprehensive and engaging international student programs are about much more than attracting a diverse student body or encouraging study abroad. Our people and programs prepare students to succeed in an increasingly diverse, global society. For this, Binghamton University is nationally recognized, winning seven awards for the strength of our international programs, including being honored by NAFSA: Association of International Educators as one of five premier schools with extraordinary achievement in internationalization.
• Economic development
  Binghamton University plays a major role in regional economic development, contributing $865 million annually in economic impact and creating jobs. We have a symbiotic relationship with the Greater Binghamton region, made more powerful through the Binghamton University Downtown Center and the programs and events it fosters.

Why now?

• There has never been a greater need for the kind of graduates Binghamton produces. Employers in New York state and far beyond are clamoring for the hardworking, exceptionally well-prepared, creative thinkers and leaders who emerge from Binghamton's programs.
• Meteoric growth in both size and quality, in the 62 short years since the University's founding, requires substantial investment. To sustain and advance our excellence and public mission, Binghamton must move constantly forward, capitalizing on our unprecedented national and international reputation while advancing our plans for the future.
• Binghamton University has never been better poised to hear its name mentioned along with the country's other outstanding public universities. We are unique, filling our own niche, and we have the potential, with the generous support of those who believe in our mission, to make greater-than-ever contributions - in human capital and in knowledge - to the region, state, country and world.
• Binghamton is in a very competitive environment, contending for position (and revenue, students and faculty members) among its fellow State University of New York system schools and competing peer institutions. Private philanthropy can make an enormous difference both in perception of Binghamton by legislators and in what we can offer to attract exceptional students and exceptional faculty.