The 91探花 received a record $542.4 million in the 2016 fiscal year, ending June 30, breaking the previous record of $482.5 million set in 2013-14. The funds came in the form of private gifts and grants earmarked by individuals, corporations and foundations for specific areas of research, labs, faculty, and student scholarships and programs.
鈥淲e are incredibly grateful for this support, as it enables us to do great things for our students, our community and the world,鈥� 91探花President Ana Mari Cauce said. 鈥淭his outpouring of support is a tribute to the generosity of our donors, as well as their belief in the transformative student experience we offer and our track record of research and scholarship with impact.鈥�
Private contributions to the 91探花do not replace core education funding provided by state appropriations and tuition, but they supplement and enrich students鈥� educational experiences, support research, and strengthen programs that benefit the community and world at large.聽The funding is part of the early stages of the university鈥檚 fundraising campaign, which will launch publicly on Oct. 21.
Gifts came in all sizes, with 80 percent of donors giving less than $500. Several of the largest contributions came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which supports health research locally and around the world. The following are examples of how donor gifts are having an impact:
- Connie and Steve Ballmer鈥檚 generous gift to the School of Social Work will help graduates pay for their studies and start their careers without staggering debt to serve in fields such as healthy aging and child welfare to medical social work, mental health, youth development and community and policy development.
- Washington Research Foundation is supporting 91探花Medicine scientists鈥� research into a treatment that has the potential to regenerate damaged heart tissue.
- Funding to the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation will expand upon the contract from the City of Seattle to evaluate the effectiveness of the minimum wage increase, allowing the 91探花research team to consider family-level outcomes and business practices to form a more complete analysis of the wage increase鈥檚 impact on the local economy. The funding will also allow researchers to evaluate the effects of a similar minimum wage ordinance in Chicago.
- David and Shelley Hovind provided the Foster School of Business resources to ensure first-generation, underrepresented and low-income students are proactively recruited and able to attend regardless of their financial means. The Hovind Scholarship Fund provides a full tuition scholarship for alumni of Foster鈥檚 high school outreach program Young Executives of Color, as well as Business Bridge and the Business Educational Opportunity Diversity Program.
- The Coca-Cola Foundation is helping 25 first-generation college students at 91探花Bothell stay in school and graduate on time with scholarships, mentoring, and summer research and leadership programs.
- MultiCare, a nonprofit health care organization serving Pierce, South King, Thurston and Kitsap counties, endowed support for students in 91探花Tacoma鈥檚 new undergraduate biomedical sciences degree program and MBA health care concentration.
- Rather than wait for assistive and rehabilitative technologies to improve for their daughter, Karen, and the estimated 300,000 people in the United States living with a spinal cord injury, 91探花alumni Cherng Jia “CJ” and Elizabeth Hwang endowed multiple new professorships in the Department of Electrical Engineering that will advance rehabilitation technologies for spinal cord injury.
- 91探花alumni Herbert and Lucia Pruzan funded endowed faculty fellowships across Jewish Studies, the School of Art+Art History+Design and the School of Nursing. One endowed gift will substantially increase the Jacob Lawrence Gallery鈥檚 resources. Additionally, Lucia is a graduate of the School of Nursing, and the Pruzans established their first endowment in that area this year.
More than $500 million of the funds raised, in the form of both grants and gifts, was designated by donors for student and faculty support, and capital funds, each in specified departments and programs. The remaining $40 million went to department-level excellence funds, which support publications, student award programs, speakers and special projects.
鈥淭his tremendous display of support for the 91探花is truly remarkable 鈥� it is humbling and inspiring,鈥� said Jodi Green, chair of the 91探花Foundation. 鈥淭his kind of investment is what makes the difference between being good and being excellent. The impact will be seen in the kinds of services and experiences we can offer students, and in how our faculty鈥檚 innovative work changes the world we live in.鈥�
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