With two years left to go, the UA's billion-dollar fundraiser, Campaign Arizona, has made already made roughly 85 percent of its goal, but an expected 10 percent cut in the UA Foundation's budget could make the remaining $150 million difficult to raise, its staff says.

In September alone, about $106 million was pledged and donated to various parts of the UA, said Tom Sanders, Campaign Arizona executive director.

"September was the best (fundraising) month in the history of the university," he said.

Last week, President Pete Likins announced that the university's fundraising effort had amassed about $850 million in donations of the $1 billion hoped for. During the weekend, Likins' Campaign Arizona leadership team met and considered increasing the goal or even shortening the timeline to raise those funds, said Dana Wier, spokeswoman for the foundation.

But now, with Gov. Jane Hull proposing an additional $17 million be removed from the university's state funding to help combat a $1 billion deficit, Wier said the foundation is feeling the pain.

"We're thrilled with the fundraising, and at the same time, it's the grimmest economic period we've ever been through," she said. "The budget is cutting back, we're feeling the same ax (as other departments)."

The more than $16 million in cuts to the UA last year did not cripple fundraising. As of March, the campaign was 75 percent of the way to its goal, with only 65 percent of its timeline completed.

But with a 10 percent cut, the foundation may have to reduce the size or number of events it uses to build contacts and work with potential donors, Wier said. This budget reduction is nearly twice the size of those taken from colleges and departments last year.

"It is difficult to raise money if we're not out with people. We're trying to be creative, more efficient," she said.

Instead of having the foundation take the lead in fundraising efforts, Wier suggested that the colleges and departments themselves become more responsible for Campaign Arizona's success.

And some at the university are already doing that.

Teaming up, the College of Pharmacy and the Arizona Cancer Center convinced Proctor & Gamble to donate the patents for four synthesized drugs that have not yet been fully developed, said pharmacy spokesman David Von Behren.

"(Proctor & Gamble) generates roughly a patent a day," many of which pertain to drugs that they do not have the staff or time to complete and market, Von Behren said. Therefore, the company has established a program in which it donates certain drugs, and their potential profits, to other institutions.

The UA has received 33 patents for drugs to fight cancer, HIV and hepatitis-C.

"This is a chance to get (the university researchers') hands on a real world drug," he said.

As this donation is a product, the exact amount of money it will generate for the university is impossible to know, Von Behren said.

However, the UA Foundation is crediting it with a large chuck of the funds pledged during September, Sanders said.

That same month, the School of Family and Consumer Sciences received a $10 million pledge from the Credit Counselors of America to create a consumer credit education institute, said Melinda Burke, director of the school's southwest retail center.

The college, which already receives $75,000 a year from the organization, is now expected to receive $1 million a year for 10 years to expand their community outreach, Burke said.

If contributions like these continue coming in, Sanders said the $1 billion goal will easily be broken. Likins' leadership team is expected to meet again in the spring to decide whether to increase Campaign Arizona's goal, while simultaneously, the foundation begins to "ramp up" for the next fundraising campaign, Wier said.

"In any university's life, the current campaign is setting the bar for the next," she said.