Join a Community of Visionaries

Chancellor’s Circle members are among UCSF’s most valued philanthropic partners — a community of leaders united by a shared vision for the future of health. Their flexible gifts can provide the early support that helps bold ideas gain traction and catalyze additional funding, advancing the discoveries that move UCSF forward. As a member, you’ll connect with others who share this vision and get an inside look at the progress your generosity helps make possible — with exclusive access to UCSF experts and physician-scientists through invitation-only events and early access to the award-winning UCSF Magazine.

The Chancellor’s Circle is a select community of philanthropic leaders who understand the unique power of flexible giving. Together, their unrestricted annual gifts provide a rare and vital source of support for some of UCSF’s most consequential advances.

Flexible Funding: A Powerful Dimension of Support

Philanthropy enables progress across UCSF — from advancing research on specific diseases to supporting leading faculty members, programs, and patient care. Chancellor’s Circle giving adds a distinct and essential complement: flexibility.

Unrestricted funds give the chancellor opportunities to act quickly — supporting leading researchers, emerging science and technology, and early-stage discoveries with the potential for significant impact.

Less than 5% of philanthropic funding is unrestricted, making it among the most valuable forms of giving.

Backing exceptional minds

Chancellor’s Circle support allows talented UCSF investigators to pursue ambitious questions and generate early evidence that can move forward new approaches to treatments.

Alice Tang, PhD, a student in UCSF’s Medical Scientist Training Program, is pioneering computational tools that combine genetic data and knowledge networks to help us better understand complex diseases, including Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders.

Giving bold ideas room to grow

Chancellor’s Circle support gives new ideas with transformative potential the early momentum they need to take shape, evolve, and open new avenues for discovery.

The Cancer Cell Mapping Initiative is looking beyond individual genetic mutations to map the complex protein networks that drive cancer. This new way of understanding disease is revealing previously hidden therapeutic targets and is now being applied to infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza, and tuberculosis.

Putting powerful tools in researchers’ hands

Chancellor’s Circle support helps UCSF harness emerging technologies that can dramatically accelerate discovery and expand what scientists can investigate.

Cryo-electron microscopy lets researchers capture near-atomic 3D images of proteins and other molecules exactly as they behave in the body. Led by David Agard, PhD, Yifan Cheng, PhD, and Kliment Verba, PhD, scientists are using these detailed molecular maps to design precisely targeted drugs and open new frontiers for discovery.

An Investment that Fuels Discovery

Chancellor’s Circle support enables UCSF to invest not only in promising research but also in the talent, ideas, and advanced technologies that can make the next breakthrough possible.

Membership Levels

Zenith: $50,000+ annually

Helix: $25,000 – $49,999 annually

Horizon: $10,000 – $24,999 annually

Ready to join the Chancellor’s Circle? Make your gift today. For more information, contact Britt Merchant, associate director of development, at britt.merchant@ucsf.edu, or (415) 683-8292.

Portrait photo of UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood
Meet Chancellor Hawgood

UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood leads one of the world’s premier health-sciences universities and one of the nation’s leading academic health systems. He is uniquely positioned to recognize where extraordinary talent and new possibilities converge, where emerging technologies could accelerate discovery, and where timely investment could help UCSF respond to an urgent need or seize an unexpected opportunity to shape the future of health care.