The University has already raised over one-third of its $100 million goal to be reached by December 2016 for the Catalyst Fund, a fundraising initiative that was launched in January in support of primarily need-based scholarships for undergraduate students and fellowships for graduate students. According to Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid in an email to the Justice, the Catalyst Fund is a part of the University's ongoing capital campaign.

De Graffenried wrote that the idea to initiate the fund arose from broad discussions led by University President Frederick Lawrence, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship, Chair of the Board of Trustees Perry Traquina '78 and several other members of the Board.

According to information on the Catalyst Fund provided by Director of Development Communications David Nathan in an email to the Justice, the University's goal is to raise $75 million to reserve for endowment and designate $25 million for current use.

According to Nathan, endowment gifts will be invested. However, approximately five or six percent of this will be used each year for student scholarships, "making the money available as a permanent fund and available for future generations," he wrote. "As the investment grows in value over the years, even more becomes available to distribute to students."

Although Nathan wrote that it is too early to speculate on how the Catalyst Fund will impact individual student financial aid packages, he wrote that the "[s]uccessful completion of the campaign will allow Brandeis to continue to change the arc of [the] lives of young people by offering an accessible education; maintain its historic commitment to educating the best students without regard to financial need; and ensure a diverse student body."

De Graffenreid wrote that the amount of funds that go to undergraduate financial aid compared to the amount that will be used toward graduate aid will, to some extent, depend on donor requests. She maintained, however, that the focus of the fund is on undergraduate financial aid.

"As our alumni demonstrate, these individuals go on to change the world for the better in many large and small ways," said Lawrence of the fund, in a statement provided by Nathan to the Justice. "Accessibility and affordability of higher education has been a core commitment of Brandeis since its founding."

Nathan wrote that alumni, parents, trustees, friends and members of the Brandeis National Committee will all be asked to support the initiative. He wrote that the fund has received gifts from trustees, who are also alumni, of $7.5 million and five million dollars, and two separate five million dollar gifts from "friends of the University."

Nathan wrote that in the last academic year, Brandeis awarded $54.5 million in grants and scholarships to undergraduate students. "Nearly two out of every three students receives financial aid," he wrote.