Incentive to give

Generosity meets its match and students benefit

From M, spring 2006

Just two years ago, the University made raising new gifts for scholarships and fellowships a priority. Nearly 36,000 alumni and friends stepped forward, and by the end of January 2006, a remarkable $111 million had been raised through the scholarship drive, toward a goal of $150 million. And the drive is going strong.

Many donors had a powerful incentive to act: matching opportunities that doubled or tripled the impact of their gifts. One new opportunity, which ended in January, was a limited-time match from the TCF Foundation for alumni making their first scholarship gift this year or renewing a first gift from the previous year. Kien Nguyen, a 1990 College of Biological Sciences (CBS) graduate, and his wife, Julie Warren, were among them. They pledged $2,000 a year for five years, for a $10,000 gift. Nguyen's employer, Johnson & Johnson, matches employee gifts two for one, adding $20,000. And because Nguyen is a new donor, his first pledge payment will also be doubled through the TCF match, creating a scholarship endowment of $32,000. What's more, the annual endowment payout will be matched by the President's Scholarship Match, making an astonishing $3,200 available annually for CBS students.

Other donors pooled their gifts to make a greater impact and qualify for the President's Scholarship Match. The 135th Anniversary Scholarship Fund created by the College of Liberal Arts raised $250,000 from alumni. With the match, $25,000 will go to students every year.