A generous gift of $511,000 from the Dana McLean Greeley Foundation to fund a peace scholar was one of many fundraising highlights of the 2008 fiscal year.
UMass Lowell enjoyed a highly successful fundraising year, raising $14 million in total support — 40 percent more than the year’s goal. As a result of this effort, students will benefit from 33 new endowment funds, including the Chancellor Martin T. Meehan Educational Excellence Fund, a scholarship fund created from money raised through Chancellor Meehan’s inauguration in April.
Other highlights of the year included two $1 million gifts for professorships in green plastics, a gift from the Greeley Foundation that now funds the University’s first peace scholar, and a wildly successful fundraising event for the Honors Program that raised $117,000, breaking a record for the most money raised from a single campus event.
As of June 30, the close of the 2008 fiscal year, the University received $4.4 million in cash and an additional $3.9 million in pledges. Total support, including gifts-in-kind and grants, was $1.8 million more than in 2007.
In addition, the campaign to double the University’s endowment to $40 million, which began four years ago, met its goal a full year earlier than expected. The Public Higher Education Endowment Incentive Program (PHEEIP) campaign created 120 of UML’s 250 individual endowment funds that provide scholarships and important discretionary income for colleges and departments.
Within the UMass system, the Lowell campus is second only to UMass Amherst in the size of its endowment. The total market value of the endowment breaks down to $3,772 per student for UML, up from $2,297 per student when the campaign started in 2003.
“The exciting part of our success is that we’ve added over a million dollars to the University’s annual revenue stream thanks to these new endowment funds,” says Executive Director of University Advancement John Davis. “We will continue to build the endowment so the University will have a stable source of income for years to come.”
With Chancellor Meehan’s renewed focus on private fundraising support, the Advancement Office hopes to continue its successes into the new fiscal year. To reflect this effort, the office will expand by four positions, including a new major gifts officer, an annual fund staff member and a corporate and foundation relations professional.
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