Emily Hopkins of University Communications spoke with the chair of Weill Cornell's fundraising campaign, Robert Appel '53, a trustee emeritus of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and presidential councillor. This is the third in a series of interviews with each of the campaign co-chairs.

Since Cornell's fundraising campaign was launched in 2006, Weill has had huge success, even in the midst of an economic downturn. How did you do it?

First, we organized a campaign by major diseases, rather than by academic units. We concentrated on certain areas of public interest such as neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's that have a relatively low success rate in outcome. We were able to raise money to build a major research effort around them.

Second, we concentrated on large gifts from alumni, but also from "grateful patients," people who have used our center and hospital.

We must have done a good job, because as I understand it, we were the No. 1 medical school in raising money for the past few years.

The Medical Research Building, which will be completed by 2014, will be dedicated Nov. 9. How will the building change Weill Cornell?

It's going to be a major change. This is the first major medical research building we've undertaken in several decades. It is an extraordinary building as well as a costly one at more than $600 million. As one of the most modern, technologically advanced medical buildings anywhere, we believe it will lead to major developments in the practice of medicine and enhance [Weill Cornell's] recognition as a research center.

We are concentrating this building on several fields of medicine that have not gotten major funding in recent years: neurological diseases, melanomas, some diseases that have defied treatment and cure. We think that as we bring advances in those from the bench to the bedside, it will make for major changes in the practice of medicine, not only at Weill Cornell, but across the country.

Weill has been good at raising money for buildings. How does that compare to raising money for faculty and programs?

The building itself -- the bricks and mortar -- was the first thing we raised money for. That was done during a very difficult economic period, but we did that very nicely, very quickly. Now, with the Research Leads to Cures initiative, we are concentrating on the recruitment of people for that building and the endowment to support that program. Believe it or not, it's more difficult to raise money for people than it is for bricks and mortar.

Why is that?

I just don't know. Apparently people can envision the building and the floors dedicated to things they might be interested in, but when you try to get them to support the people that might make this work -- their benefits and their salaries -- it becomes much more difficult. That is the phase we're in now. It has not gone as quickly as the building fundraising, but it's beginning to pick up speed, and we think we will reach our goal in this phase.

You and your wife, Helen, have made two $15 million gifts to Weill Cornell during this campaign. What inspired your own giving?

My wife and I are both Cornellians. Cornell has always been a very important part of our lives. We started supporting Cornell when we were in Ithaca. But when we came to the medical school, we got equally interested there, particularly in Alzheimer's research. We have some good friends suffering from the disease, so we dedicated our gift giving to create an Alzheimer's institute at Weill. The second gift we gave went entirely to the new building. In short, our giving is inspired by our love of Cornell and our belief that this medical school is an extraordinary place.

Can you name your favorite moment so far in this campaign?

I think it was way at the beginning, when we got our first [anonymous] $100 million gift, to get the campaign started. We then realized that, in a terrible recession with almost everyone pulling back, we could attract big money. We knew that despite all the problems out there, we were going to raise our $1.3 billion.

You know, the Weill Cornell Medical College had never before aligned a campaign with the Ithaca campus campaign. So for the first time, our staff and our leadership felt that they were part of the big picture. That in itself has produced a much more effective campaign. When we launched this time, it wasn't just as a medical school, but as Cornell and its medical school. That's a forceful message.