$300 Million in Gifts Sets Fiscal-Year Record
Posted on July 24, 2008Carolina’s fundraising efforts brought in $300.3 million in gifts in fiscal year 2008, breaking the $300 million mark for the first time in school history.
The total represented the fifth straight record-setting year for this type of support, which accounts for money that is immediately available to the University. UNC raised $250.8 million in gifts in fiscal year 2007.
In commitments for fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, UNC received $342.8 million. Commitments include pledges as well as gifts.
“This has been another tremendous year at Carolina,” said Matt Kupec ’80, vice chancellor for University advancement. “Our alumni and friends are sustaining the incredible momentum created by the Carolina First Campaign.”
Highlights in 2008 included Wilmington’s Fred Eshelman ’72 committing $10 million to the School of Pharmacy to close out the Carolina First Campaign. That drive ended Dec. 31, 2007, after raising $2.38 billion.
Eshelman made two contributions to the pharmacy school: The first, $9 million, went toward cancer research; the second, $1 million, is aimed at supporting the school’s Educational Renaissance initiatives, meant to address the needs of the next generation of pharmacy students.
The commitment for cancer research resulted in matching funds from the University Cancer Research Fund, creating an $18 million Carolina Partnership formed to pursue new cancer treatments.
The $1 million pledge was matched by the Pharmacy Network Foundation, which works to promote and enhance pharmacy service in order to improve the health and welfare of the general population.
Eshelman’s total support of the pharmacy school amounts to about $33 million. In May, the School of Pharmacy was renamed in his honor; it is now the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
Major support for undergraduate students in 2008 included a $6 million gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust to help increase the number of students invited to the undergraduate honors program.
The gift, which adds faculty to teach honors courses, qualifies for a $3 million grant from the N.C. Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust, bringing the total value of the gift to $9 million. The state fund, established in 1985 by the N.C. General Assembly, provides matching grants to recruit and retain outstanding faculty.
The Kenan Trust gift built on a September 2007 gift to the honors program. From an anonymous donor, the $5 million gift will fund five new professorships named for two UNC alumni – Peter Thacher Grauer ’68 and William Burwell Harrison ’66. State matching funds will add $2.5 million, making this a $7.5 million endowment.
In support for the arts at Carolina in 2008, William McCoy ’55, who served as Carolina’s interim chancellor in 1999-2000, and his wife, Sara, made two commitments totaling $1.1 million to create the James Moeser Fund for Artistic Excellence. It honors former Chancellor James Moeser, who stepped down as Carolina’s chancellor on June 30.
The new fund will create a permanent source of income for the Office of Executive Director for the Arts to ensure that artists at the highest level of excellence will teach students in master classes, engage with faculty through symposia and research and perform for students, faculty, staff and the community.
Commitments in 2008 also helped the University create 36 endowed professorships, as well as a total of 93 undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships.
Carolina had 73,247 donors for the year. UNC alumni gave $81 million, and corporations and foundations combined to provide $89.9 million. The balance came from friends of the University and other organizations.
Related coverage is available online:
- Gifted: The Carolina First Campaign did as it was designed: Bring to Chapel Hill the elements of public higher education leadership. The effort raised $2.38 billion in eight and a half years, becoming what UNC officials are calling the fifth-largest completed campaign in U.S. higher education and the largest completed fundraising drive at a university in the South.
From the March/April 2008 issue of the Carolina Alumni Review, available online to Carolina Alumni members. - Honors Program to Grow With $6 Million Kenan Gift
May 2008 news report - Pharmacy School Named for Fred Eshelman ’72
May 2008 news report - Gift, Match Net $2 Million for Pharmacy Education
February 2008 news report - Carolina First Ends With a Bang on $9 Million Gift
January 2008 news report - Gift to Expand Honors Program, Create Five Professorships
September 2007 news report - UNC Breaks Fundraising Record
July 2004 news report
