It is time for Brazil's cash-strapped universities to embrace the fundraising campaigns that are common at prestigious institutions worldwide.

For instance, the money raised by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in its latest campaign (http://campaign.harvard.edu) exceeds the individual annual budgets of two major Brazilian science-funding agencies. Furthermore, the £1.2 billion (US$2 billion) raised by the University of Cambridge, UK, to mark its 800th anniversary in 2009 is comparable to the annual budget of the University of Sao Paulo.

Such initiatives are still unusual in Brazil, where government-funded universities are the main engine of higher education and science. The idea of private donations is widely regarded with suspicion, being perceived as a corrupt route for 'buying' illegal advantages or as potentially providing the state with an excuse to cut back investment.

A few of Brazil's leading academic institutions are starting to encourage private benefactors, so the challenge now is to increase that momentum and expand the fundraising enterprise.