In an attempt to exceed a national fundraising record by nearly $1 billion, Columbia University is in the midst of a public campaign to raise $4 billion for the development of its facilities and research programs.

If the campaign goal is met, Columbia plans to put $1.4 billion toward new academic programs and research, $1 billion toward new facilities and renovation, $440 million toward need-based financial aid and $340 million toward faculty support.

The campaign, which started with a private phase in 2004, has already raised about $1.6 billion. The public phase, announced earlier this month, is expected to bring in the rest of the money through alumni and public donations.

If successful, the Columbia campaign will be the largest in higher-education history.

Susan Feagin, vice president for development and alumni relations at Columbia, said the university is leading a campaign drastically different from past efforts.

"We're looking for more community support in this campaign than in ones before," Feagin said. "We're leaning more on the alumni and philanthropists, rather than big businesses."

The school's last money-raising campaign ended in 2000, with nearly $2.8 billion in donations.

"It's easy to find big corporations to donate because we're right in the heart of [New York City]," Feagin noted, "but we want a more personal approach that students will be more proud of."

Previously, the largest campaign ever completed took place at the University of California-Los Angeles, which raised more than $3 billion across 10 years before ending earlier this year. The University of Southern California held a record of $2.85 billion before UCLA, but raised that amount in just seven years — the standard length of a fund-raising campaign.

So far, Columbia has collected donations of at least $1 million from more than 200 donors and $168 million from members of its Board of Trustees. Alumni have contributed almost half the funds raised, with those gifts doubling over the past two years.

At the University of Wisconsin, the UW Foundation is the main group that oversees all fund raising. In 2005, the UW Foundation completed a $1.5 billion campaign similar to Columbia's newest campaign.

And the UW Foundation has many ongoing programs to help the university financially. The most familiar campaign is the Telefund program, which pays students to call alumni in search of donations. Other initiatives include corporate and foundation relations, the parents program and the matching gifts program.

"Attaining funds for the UW is an ongoing job," said Chris Richards, senior director of development for the UW Foundation. "The university doesn't necessarily need a large campaign to bring in funds; it can be done through smaller projects that we work on every day."