Pursue Gold exceeds $500 million target ahead of schedule

East Carolina University is painting the Pursue Gold campaign purple as it surpassed the goal of $500 million five months early. Pirate Nation has raised more than $514 million, and ECU continued accepting contributions through the campaign’s official end date in December.

Pushing the campaign past the goal were friends and colleagues who made gifts toward a scholarship in memory of Jeff Charles Purtee, the Voice of the Pirates since 1988, who died in February. His famous “You can paint this one purple!” will forever be heard through the scholarship in the ECU School of Communication.

Chancellor Philip Rogers kicked off the public phase of the campaign in November 2021 and asked Pirate Nation to come together to help propel ECU into the future.

“These gifts keep ECU on the leading edge of higher education and help us strengthen the academic enterprise, advance our athletics programs, produce meaningful research outcomes, deliver quality health care services and more,” Rogers said. “Our ability to sustain this success is possible because of the tremendous response to Pursue Gold.”

The university crossed the goal after completing the most successful fundraising year in ECU history. Christopher Dyba, vice chancellor for university advancement, said the momentum for supporting the campaign has been building since Rogers’ arrival in 2021. “Pirate Nation has stepped up. It is clear that ECU alumni, friends and donors are all behind our great university,” Dyba said.

Pirate Nation donors have invested in the pillars of the Pursue Gold campaign by creating opportunities for student success through funding nearly $138 million in merit, need-based and athletic scholarships; championing research by giving more than $24.3 million to accelerate innovation and discovery; building ECU’s future with more than $248 million of discretionary and program funding; and sustaining the university’s value by investing more than $201.6 million to secure ECU’s endowment.

University leaders urged supporters to keep the momentum going as they pushed toward completion of the campaign in December. Dyba said the overall success of the campaign will go a long way toward securing future funding of scholarships and other priorities.

More information about the many ways to give to ECU is at give.ecu.edu.