ELEVATION: The Campaign for CU Denver
Join us elevating the opportunities a CU Denver education provides—to our students and our communities. Whether you choose to make a gift to a scholarship that opens doors, an initiative that clears a path to graduation, or an endowed chair or professorship that attracts distinguished scholars and researchers, know that you will make a life better, forever.
Vision
From above, the world looks different.
The complexity of daily life dissolves into patterns and shapes; problems feel smaller, possibilities seem limitless, and the interconnectivity of the world becomes more apparent. It’s a vantage point that invites reflection, offering clarity and calm, and reminding us that the world, though vast, is navigable—its beauty and logic accessible to those willing to rise above and view their place in it from a new perspective.
Education elevates the mind, human potential, and our society.
Students who earn degrees reach a summit that provides a new perspective, where life looks different and a world of opportunity becomes apparent—opportunities for their careers, opportunities for their families, and opportunities for our communities.
You know this because you’ve experienced it.
You understand and appreciate the value of higher education because of the opportunities it provided you—to build a career, to follow your passions, to broaden your perspective. You know how hard work and determination lead to success and how your own success has a ripple effect that lifts your family, your community, and our society.
Rising to the Occasion
CU Denver degrees and credentials create paths to new horizons, rewarding lives, and better futures.
Their impact is powerfully transformative given our unique value proposition: we are the only public university in Colorado that is considered highly accessible whose graduates earn on average more than $2 million in lifetime income. As a public institution, we consider it our obligation to ensure that all students have access to this life-changing opportunity while our entire region benefits from an academic, economic, and cultural engine in downtown Denver that uplifts our communities and quality of life throughout Colorado and beyond.
We now have an opportunity take our impact to the next level.
For those who trust their futures with us, we will come around them like never before, from enrollment to graduation, throughout their careers, to retirement and beyond. We will be their university for life, providing opportunities to upskill, reskill, and shape their futures at any point along their journeys. We will co-create this pipeline of talent with the Denver community to efficiently and effectively drive the prosperity of our region.
We know what it will take, and we know we can do it—but not alone. Today we ask you to partner with us as we seize this opportunity to shape Denver’s future through the transformative power of higher education.
Our Higher Purpose
Together, we will establish CU Denver as the acknowledged higher education partner for Denver—a trusted, innovative force shaping the city’s future. This is not only our commitment, it’s our obligation, and we are aligning the full strength of the university to fulfill it.
ELEVATION, our comprehensive fundraising campaign, will allow us to align resources with our ambitions by making timely investments in key areas:
- Expanding access to the lifelong benefits of higher education
- Expanding support systems vital to student success
- Cultivating human talent that promotes innovation and discovery in the classroom and beyond
I was raised in a family of teachers, and I’ve always believed that education is a force for good—something that should uplift individuals, families, and entire communities. Every learner who chooses to build and strengthen the foundation of their future with us deserves the very best, but they will not be the sole beneficiaries. With their success will come greater opportunity for all of us to thrive.
Kenneth T. Christensen, PhD
Chancellor and Professor of Mechanical Engineering