The University of Colorado Denver this week publicly launched ELEVATION: The Campaign for CU Denver, a comprehensive fundraising initiative designed to expand access and opportunity, strengthen student success, deepen community impact, and accelerate innovation. Unlike traditional campaigns centered on a dollar goal, ELEVATION focuses on people and outcomes. The campaign’s central promise is to fuel the support, systems, and partnerships that lead to meaningful, measurable impact for students, families, communities, and the Denver Metro region.

“Elevation is what we achieve when a university is positioned for learner success, committed to public service, and deeply connected to the community it serves,” said Chancellor Kenneth T. Christensen. “This campaign will expand the resources that fuel our rising trajectory and ensures that CU Denver continues to elevate our region for decades to come.”

Upward Momentum

ELEVATION reflects what CU Denver is uniquely designed to deliver: upward momentum. The university is Colorado’s #1 institution for social mobility, and our graduates experience an average $2.1 million lifetime income lift, representing a transformational return on investment that underscores the university’s commitment to access, equity, and learner success.

CU Denver’s exceptional student body includes a high proportion of first-generation students, working learners, and students from historically marginalized communities. Fifty percent of our learners are first-generation college students, 41% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, and 73% of full time students work while enrolled. These realities inform the university’s commitment to design systems that are supportive, flexible, and intentionally built for today’s learners. 
At the heart of the campaign are three major investment priorities that will shape learner success and community prosperity for decades to come: (1) access, (2) student success, and (3) human talent.

Expanding Access and Opportunity

Expanding access means expanding opportunity. CU Denver serves as a learning engine for people from high school through retirement, offering flexible pathways that align with evolving workforce needs. Keeping these pathways affordable through scholarships and fellowships brings the clear benefits of higher education within reach, creating a strong value proposition that transforms lives and creates a ripple effect throughout our region. 

Student Omar Mendoza, who is pursuing a degree in physics after a career as a professional chef, is like many non-traditional students who see access to higher education as a path to new futures. “I’m not here to just get a grade; I am here because I have seen the ‘real world’ and I want to better my life by making a deliberate choice to get a proper education,” Omar said. Omar found stability and opportunity as a scholarship recipient. Having learned to manage finances and resolving to balance school with long-term stability, he looks forward to graduating without student debt thanks to a Reisher Scholarship. “This scholarship allowed me to focus fully on learning and ways I need to be successful,” he said. He has also found success as a student and researcher thanks to the encouragement, advising, and mentorship of CU Denver’s faculty and research community.

Investing in Student Success

Student success is CU Denver’s core mission, and ELEVATION amplifies the university’s commitment to holistic support from enrollment to graduation and beyond. Philanthropic investments will advance initiatives that time and again prove critical to the learner journey, such as academic advising, tutoring, and mentoring. Beyond graduation, the campaign will help position students for job placement by providing funds for experiential learning opportunities, such as unpaid internships, apprenticeships, and study abroad, ensuring the region benefits from a strong, adaptable, and career ready talent pipeline. The campaign will also highlight student emergency funds like Loving Lynx, because an unanticipated expense should not derail an education. 

“Every student deserves a legitimate opportunity to succeed, and CU Denver is uniquely positioned to provide that,” Chancellor Christensen told a gathering of supporters last year while describing his vision for what CU Denver and its learners can attain. “Our success is inseparable from the success of our city,” he explained.

The Right People in the Right Place

The ELEVATION campaign will invest in the people who make CU Denver extraordinary: its faculty, researchers, innovators, and academic leaders. Powering human talent deepens both the student learning experience and the university’s impact across Colorado. Attracting top talent to the campus will drive cutting-edge research that promotes innovation and discovery while boosting economic competitiveness. 

Thriving cities depend on strong, interconnected ecosystems where higher education plays a central role, and CU Denver intends to be the acknowledged and trusted higher education partner for the Denver Metro region. Whether addressing pressing issues like affordable housing, providing science-based research and training around psychedelic assisted therapies since the passage of Proposition 122, or examining the effects of the Denver Public Schools reforms, CU Denver faculty bring their expertise to bear on issues and opportunities close to home.

A First for A Single Campus 

While the CU System as a whole has conducted several successful fundraising campaigns over the years, ELEVATION represents the first comprehensive campaign launched by an individual CU campus. “As a public urban research university, CU Denver has both the obligation and the opportunity to elevate students, families, industries, and communities,” said Chancellor Kenneth T. Christensen. “Philanthropy is the catalyst that allows us to deliver these lasting outcomes for those we serve.”