The UC and CSU systems may be strapped for cash, but that doesn’t mean all schools in California are going under.

Stanford University’s latest five-year fundraising drive netted an amazing $6.2 billion, the largest amount ever raised in a higher education campaign, school officials said Wednesday.

The money raised by the Stanford Challenge is the most collected by a university in a single fundraising campaign, confirmed spokeswoman Lisa Lapin, citing the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. That total surpasses the $4.3 billion goal set when the campaign was launched in October 2006.

During the campaign that ended Dec. 31, the university received donations from more than 166,000 alumni, parents and community members. Luckily for Stanford, some of those alumni have very deep pockets.

The university received contributions of more than $50 million from Stanford alumni such as Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang, Nike Inc. co-founder Phil Knight and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Robert King.

Money from the Stanford Challenge is being used to fund an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research on areas such as education, environment, human health and international affairs, officials said.

“We’ve undertaken a new model in higher education, with experts from different fields joining together,” school president John Hennessy said in a statement. “This kind of collaboration has enabled Stanford to assume a larger role in addressing global problems.”

The money is providing funding for more than 160 endowed faculty positions, 360 graduate student fellowships, the construction or renovation of 38 campus buildings, $27 million in seed grants for innovative research and more than $250 million for need-based undergraduate scholarships.

Stanford is the latest university to announce a successful multibillion fundraising campaign. Last year, Yale University said it had raised $3.9 billion, and the University of Pennsylvania said it collected $3.5 billion.