Dal's Bringing Worlds Together to tackle biggest challenges of our times

How do you bring together more than 400 Dalhousie alumni, partners, and friends? You announce a campaign for transformational change.

On April 2, Dalhousie President Dr. Kim Brooks took the stage at the McInnes Room to tell attendees—and the world—that the university has officially launched Bringing Worlds Together. With a goal of $750 million, this fundraising campaign has made history as the largest ever among Atlantic Canadian universities. But Dr. Brooks made it clear that the real goal of Bringing Worlds Together is to forge extraordinary partnerships that result in extraordinary solutions and a brighter future for everyone. Getting there, she added, means we cannot be worlds apart.

“Our ambition for this campaign is to share our capacity and talent with the world in a way that profoundly shapes it,” Dr. Brooks said. “This isn’t about making Dalhousie better; this is about coming together to bring about a more just and equitable future. It’s about making the world better. And it starts here in Nova Scotia.”

A hub for collaboration

Bringing Worlds Together creates opportunities to build on the tremendous success and growth that Dalhousie is experiencing. As the region’s largest research-intensive university, Dal is a hub for collaboration that is driving solutions for ocean sustainability, improving health outcomes, food security, and climate change. These breakthroughs, Dr. Brooks noted, are garnering widespread interest and recognition.

“For more than 200 years, our extraordinary community of alumni, donors, and partners have enabled Dalhousie to do the extraordinary, to become a national university with global impact,” she said.

With Bringing Worlds Together, Dalhousie aims to heighten that impact through the campaign’s three pillars: “Inspiring Future-Ready Leaders” creates clear paths for students to succeed; “Engaging in High-Impact Research” tackles some of the most complex issues facing humankind; and “Lifting Our Communities” will lead to more clinics, programs, and outreach efforts that help strengthen communities across Nova Scotia and beyond.

“Dalhousie is a place where worlds come together,” Dr. Brooks said. “Where scholarly excellence meets practical, hands-on learning experiences. Where students get to know world-leading researchers in their classes. And where groundbreaking research is helping us achieve a better and more sustainable future that leaves no one behind.”

World-changing impacts

Dr. Brooks added that Dal is making progress toward that future, with more than half of the campaign’s fundraising goal already raised. It’s an achievement that exceeds the total amount raised through the university’s last major comprehensive fundraising campaign, Bold Ambitions, which wrapped up in 2013 and raised $280 million. This initial success is making it possible for Dal to start realizing many of the goals that have been set for Bringing Worlds Together.

Gifts made through the campaign will be used to create more scholarships to ensure qualified students have the financial support they need for a Dalhousie education. They will also enable the university to launch GMP BioLabs East—a specialized, small-scale biomanufacturing facility that will help turn medical breakthroughs into new treatments that change patients’ lives. And they will fund the development of a new community clinic that will expand access to the oral care, legal, and social work services that are available to underserved populations in Nova Scotia through Dal’s existing clinics.

“Our ambitions for this campaign are to vault us even further ahead in the areas where our impact has the potential to grow exponentially and profoundly change the world,” Dr. Brooks said.

Seeking partners, rising to challenges

Since the launch of Bringing Worlds Together, Dalhousie has been sharing the news with Nova Scotians and the world, including events in Truro, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The focus now is on meeting the campaign’s $750-million fundraising goal. Every gift to the campaign makes it possible for Dalhousie to rise to the most pressing challenges facing society with innovative solutions.  

“That’s why we are Bringing Worlds Together,” Dr. Brooks said. “We are seeking partners who want to drive meaningful and lasting change that leaves no one behind, who want to accelerate talent and create impact with distinction, and who know that community matters. We can make a better world. And we can do it when we bring worlds together.”