Provided by Taylor University
Taylor University, a small Christian college in Upland, is “far ahead of schedule” in raising $500 million for capital and other projects benefiting both the University and the rural town it has called home since 1893, Taylor officials have announced.
D. Michael Lindsay, Taylor’s president, said that gifts for the half-billion-dollar Life to the Full Campaign – originally projected to last until 2030 – had already reached $425 million (85 percent) by April of this year.
“We’re on the 15-yard line,” Lindsay said. “We’re immeasurably grateful to God for this astounding provision, and to the enormous spectrum of donors He has inspired to contribute to this campaign.”
The campaign’s rapid progress is even more remarkable given its original goal. When Taylor launched the silent leadership phase of the campaign in 2022, it set out to raise $175 million – itself an extraordinary amount for a college just emerging from the pandemic with an enrollment of fewer than 2,000 traditional undergraduate students.
Less than two years later, Taylor had raised $275 million, exceeding the original goal by $100 million (63 percent) and surpassing the record raised by any of its 140+ fellow members in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).
It was then that Taylor’s leadership discerned God might be calling them to expand their vision. Identifying further needs of the University and the adjacent community, Taylor increased its target to the current $500 million, aiming to reach that amount by the start of the next decade.
Dr. Mike Falder, Taylor’s vice president for advancement, who is leading the fundraising effort, said, “The campaign has been notable for both the depth of its large gifts and the breadth of its small ones.”
Since its launch in 2022, there have been 75 gifts of seven and eight figures, including a $20 million gift for scholarships and a $40 million grant for academic initiatives, the largest single gift in Taylor’s 180-year history. At the same time, said Falder, 86 percent of the 18,000 gifts to the campaign have been under $1,000.
The resulting surge in contributions has been matched, or even exceeded, by movement on the projects for which it is intended. By this spring, nearly 80 percent of the buildings on the Taylor campus had been renovated or constructed in the last five years alone.
The campaign is funding Taylor Thrives, a multi-pronged strategic planning initiative that includes major upgrades and additions to its academic and athletic facilities, expansion of the school’s graduate offerings, and further investments in its academic programming in leadership, the health sciences, innovation and entrepreneurship, engineering, film and media and computer science.
As the strategic plan has evolved, new elements have been added, most significantly a new chapel for Taylor’s student-led worship services. While chapel attendance is expected but not monitored, record enrollment now exceeds the capacity of the thrice-weekly services, leaving approximately 35 percent of students unable to attend. As of April, Taylor had raised $49 million of the $68 million needed to complete the new chapel. Stepping out in faith, the University broke ground for the chapel last year, with a ribbon-cutting expected in time for the 2027 fall semester.
A key element of Taylor’s strategic plan is taking place outside of its campus boundaries, in the small town of Upland. In August 2024, then-Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb joined community and academic leaders for a groundbreaking and two ribbon cuttings to launch the largest series of revitalization projects the town has ever undertaken.
That groundbreaking was for a pivotal mile-long pedestrian connection, now complete, linking downtown Upland and the business district with Taylor University’s campus. The revamped corridor is only the beginning of the Taylor-led Main Street Mile Initiative. Upland, a town of just 750 households, is becoming a hub of new development.
Last summer, renovation work began to double the size of Upland’s highly popular public library. And on April 24, the town, long known for its Midwest hospitality, took a big step toward becoming even more welcoming with the groundbreaking for a boutique collegiate hotel, a wedding and event venue, and 14 guest cottages. Later this year, ground is scheduled to be broken nearby for 16 townhomes and 24 duplex villas to help address Upland’s critical housing needs, with all aspects of the master-planned community completed by 2028. Upcoming projects include downtown retail and office space, as well as a destination restaurant.
Under Taylor’s leadership, the town revitalization effort is not financed by operating funds or tuition revenue. Instead, it is funded by $100 million that Taylor helped secure, beginning with a $30 million grant awarded to the university by the Lilly Endowment and amplified by another projected $70 million in private and public investment.
President Lindsay stated that the University’s initiatives for Upland are both practical and biblical. He noted that Taylor becomes more attractive to both students and faculty as its surrounding community becomes more vibrant. And for Taylor, the effort also embodies the Old Testament mandate for believers to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you” (Jeremiah, 29:7).
As it closes out the 2025-26 academic year while securing all but 15 percent of its $500 million campaign, Taylor’s momentum extends well beyond money and construction.
For the third year in a row, fall enrollment will be the largest in Taylor’s history. Preliminary figures show Fall undergraduate enrollment at 2,450, a 45 percent increase in the last five years, with full enrollment, including online and graduate students, exceeding 3,000. Average GPA for incoming freshman is 3.9. And at 94 percent, the university’s retention rate – the percentage of freshmen who return the following year – rivals that of Ivy League schools and far exceeds the national college average of less than 70 percent.
These numbers are even more noteworthy as the nation has entered the “demographic cliff,” a reduction of the pool of college-eligible young adults. At the same time, questions have been raised nationally about the value of a college degree.
Countering is Taylor’s recent history. In 2025, 99 percent of Taylor’s graduates were employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation. And recognitions like those from the Princeton Review consistently rank Taylor students among the “happiest,” while giving the university top-tier marks for indicators such as town/gown relations.
President Lindsay, reflecting on the university’s unprecedented momentum – despite the challenges facing all higher education – said, “Clearly, there is a growing sense of enthusiasm for what God is doing at Taylor. As we close out the current academic year and look forward to the next, we are so grateful and so very encouraged by the generosity the Lord has brought to us.”