Record Fundraising Year For UConn: $158 Millions

[JohnFSilver]

It is just stunning to me how much lower than the norm we are, even given the recent increases. I understand the things that created that, but still.

Issue here is UConn has rarely pushed the endowment in past decades. The foundation, alumni association have now combined.

The school didn’t seem to really push this in the 80a and 90s, I think since the stage covered so much. Also, UConn gets criticized for the foundation not being open to open record laws.

 

[Rdkid]

Benedict and the UConn Foundation getting out in front of things. I applaud the direct approach countering the false narrative that athletic departments make money and don’t draw from a university’s resources. The report makes the case for why sports are important to UConn and why a $30-something M annual investment is not a problem in the overall mission. Costs stable (with no payouts), revenue going up, donations going up, winning still happening.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Is that aspirational, or is there a specific framework in place that will allow us to add $1 billion to our endowment?

Some options: hire away the Yale fundraisers who handle Connecticut, have alumni reunions by class year at UConn with fundraising a major goal, focus on commercialization in scientific research that leads to massive revenue, make sure the university president is spending
a lot of her time on fundraising from wealthy potential donors. There are others too.

 

[J187Money]

Benedict and the UConn Foundation getting out in front of things. I applaud the direct approach countering the false narrative that athletic departments make money and don’t draw from a university’s resources. The report makes the case for why sports are important to UConn and why a $30-something M annual investment is not a problem in the overall mission. Costs stable (with no payouts), revenue going up, donations going up, winning still happening.

Was surprised at the transparency but loved it - was really well done.

 

[J187Money]

Issue here is UConn has rarely pushed the endowment in past decades. The foundation, alumni association have now combined.

The school didn’t seem to really push this in the 80a and 90s, I think since the stage covered so much. Also, UConn gets criticized for the foundation not being open to open record laws.

Many public schools didn't - they didn't have to. I'm on the board of the foundation at SCSU - now that the state is challenged having a very small endowment really hurts.

 

[CL82]

With focus and a commitment from leadership and strong fundraising I think 3 billion in 10 years is a strong goal

Me too. I just wonder if it is and achievable goal.

 

[UConnJim]

That's pretty abysmal considering the size of the school and our success academically and athletically. Just looking at a list of highest endowments from schools we seem to be compared to...

UMass: 1.1 billion
UMaryland: 1
Cuse: 1.8 (barf)
Delaware: 1.8
Nova: 1.1

And randomly enough, Wesleyan is actually 2nd in the country in endowment per undergrad student, right after Yale #1. Even Quinnipiac has 700 mill like you said. So it's not like it's just a Northeast cultural thing where people don't give to colleges like they do down south.

Time for UConn to step it up on the fundraising front. Football success would probably help a lot with that.

The UMass endowment includes UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, UMass Boston, UMass Medical Center, UMass Dartmouth,... The endowment related to UMass Amherst is about $450 million.