Fiscal Discipline / Stewardship

Responding to President Hanlon's bold vision and urgent priorities to secure Dartmouth's future, the Call to Lead campaign currently underway is the largest and most successful fundraising effort in Dartmouth history. Drawing broad support from the Dartmouth community worldwide, the campaign has already exceeded its initial $3 billion goal, resulting in historic levels of investments in the academic enterprise that have significantly expanded the institution's global leadership and impact.

Fundraising for Dartmouth has grown from an average of $140.4 million per year in the five-year period preceding President Hanlon's arrival to an average of $322.3 million per year throughout his presidency.

Combining a best-in-class undergraduate liberal arts college with a dynamic research university, Dartmouth is one of fewer than 30 higher educational insitutions globally to exceed $3 billion in a comprehensive campaign and is one of the smallest in terms of alumni population.

In support of President Hanlon's mission to prioritize and invest in academic excellence and innovation, Dartmouth launched a multi-year budget reprioritization process. Starting with the FY 2015 budget, schools and divisions across campus were required to target 1.5% of their annual budgets for reallocation to projects that spur new initiatives and support the institution's most important academic priorities.

In FY 2017, an additional four-year reallocation exercise began to move funding from administrative areas to academic priorities in order to control spending and provide a funding source for core activities. This plan will permanently reallocate $17 million of central expenses to academic priorities including increasing Arts & Sciences faculty salaries, increasing plant renewal funding, and renovations of an academic building.

"I am proud of the Dartmouth community members, all of whom have worked hard and made difficult choices over the past several years that prioritize our mission-driven commitment to imparting wisdom to the next generation of leaders and advancing new knowledge. Thanks to a thoughtful and disciplined approach from the entire community, Dartmouth is on firmer financial footing and prepared for a future of opportunity and possibility."—President Hanlon

Dartmouth's budget was further bolstered by the exponential growth of the endowment. From 2013 to 2021, Dartmouth's endowment surged 56% to $8.5 billion.

In addition, President Hanlon has brought unprecedented levels of transparency to the Dartmouth budget, launching and co-teaching the "Inside Dartmouth's Budget" course to help faculty, staff, and students understand the institution's revenue and expenditures in the context of national trends and external forces impacting higher education.

With the goal of meeting today's competitive health care environment, Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine strengthened its collaboration with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system in a sweeping 2016 reorganization. The reorganization more closely linked Geisel's clincial academic enterprise with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and also addressed a major structural financial deficit on a path to financial sustainability. 

By aligning research strengths and teaching expertise with resources, the strategic transformation of Geisel offers a future of focused excellence in education and basic science research and a clear alignment with Dartmouth's strong and valued clinical partner. In addition, it offers a roadmap for developing the physician-leaders of the future and for maximizing Dartmouth's impact in the world.

In 2021, Dartmouth created the Infrastructure Renewal Fund to address historical under-investment in critical infrastructure upgrades. This fund will enable Dartmouth to avoid future cuts to the academic enterprise and project balanced budgets for the next 10 years while ensuring that its critical infrastructure needs are met.