The weekend began with an invitation-only dinner Friday evening for donors and campaign organizers inside a heated tent in the Science Center Plaza.

Campaign planners were expecting roughly 1,000 alumni, administrators, donors, and other University affiliates to be in attendance for this weekend’s festivities, far more than the few hundred that were on hand for the University-wide launch Sept. 21.

This weekend’s celebration in Cambridge comes just two days after Harvard School of Public Health announced at a gala in downtown Boston that it will seek to raise $450 million in its own fundraising drive. At the launch, which was attended by supporters of the school, HSPH campaign co-chair Jonathan S. Lavine said that HSPH had already raised $167 million toward its goal.

Other schools across the University are expected to roll out their own campaigns in the coming months.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthewclarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.

—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholas.fandos@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @npfandos.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: Oct. 26, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Harvard’s FAS campaign will fund the House renewal project’s full estimated pricetag of more than $1 billion. In fact, campaign funds are only expected to pay for $400 million of House renewal.