Stanford University announced a record year of fundraising Wednesday, with an unprecedented $1.035 billion in gift support donated during the 2011-12 fiscal year by nearly 79,000 donors, another record for the University.

“Their gifts keep Stanford accessible to the brightest students and ensure a breadth of opportunities – inside and outside the classroom – in world-class facilities for living and learning,” said President John Hennessy in a prepared statement.

The 2011-12 sum, a 45.9 percent increase over the preceding fiscal year and 13.6 percent larger than the University’s previous record of $911.2 million during the fiscal year 2005-06, reflects in part the final months of The Stanford Challenge – which raised $6.2 billion over five years – and the May launch of the Campaign for Stanford Medicine, a $1 billion initiative that will include funding for the construction of a new hospital.

Funds raised during the year will be allocated across a range of priorities, including $304.3 million in support of research and other programs, $102.1 million for construction and maintenance of facilities and $70.8 million for student support. A $100 million gift by Robert King MBA ’60 and his wife Dorothy King also established the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies.

Stanford’s permanent endowment grew by more than $300 million during the year through gifts, while the total philanthropic activity – including pledges yet to be fulfilled as well as gifts and pledges received – totaled $1.2 billion.

“I am extremely gratified and a little awed by their overwhelming level of support,” Hennessy said of Stanford’s donors. “It is a tremendous vote of confidence in our outstanding faculty and students.”