For Aalto University, as for many universities, fundraising is not simply about asking for support. It is about fundamentally changing how society understands the university’s role, relevance, and value.

In contexts where donating to universities is neither widely understood nor commonly practiced, fundraisers face distinctive challenges: public skepticism or indifference, assumptions that public funding is sufficient, limited awareness of societal impact, and a weak emotional connection between individuals and institutions.

This keynote explores how Aalto University crafted and delivered a fundraising campaign that addressed these challenges head-on. The campaign aimed to make the university’s societal impact visible, concrete, and personally relevant—successfully engaging both major institutional donors and individual private supporters, despite the absence of a strong philanthropic tradition.