Harvard will publicly launch the campaign in the next two or three years, but has yet to announce the total dollar figure the campaign will seek to raise.

But the University has set its “high level” objectives, Rapier said. The campaign will focus on the curricular review, efforts to strengthen the College, graduate schools whose missions support public service, and cross-university initiatives like a new focus on the sciences. The campaign will also center on funding for the arts, culture, and humanities, she said.

The University’s planned expansion into Allston will be partly financed through fundraising, but development there will outlast the likely five-year public phase of the capital campaign. Harvard may launch fundraising drives specifically for Allston or extend the campaign itself, Rapier said.

In addition, debt will play a large role in financing the costly Allston development. Harvard will also derive income from fees it charges for services like parking, Berman said in March.

Another source of income will be the endowment itself. In 2001, Harvard’s central administration instituted an annual one-half of 1 percent tax on the endowment to help fund the expansion; the 25-year tax is expected to yield at least $3 billion. But Berman said that decapitalizing the endowment—removing capital from the University’s long-term holdings—is not currently being discussed as a funding source for Allston development.

Though the cost of expansion will be in the billions, Harvard is still not prepared to put a more concrete dollar figure on Allston.

Berman said that an estimate will not be ready until a variety of expansion possibilities are presented to the University by Cooper, Robertson & Partners, a firm retained by Harvard to develop planning frameworks for Allston development.

“Aside from the fact that we know it will be billions, we don’t have anything more specific,” Berman said.

—Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.