UConn Foundation President and CEO Joshua Newton reported to the University\u2019s Board of Trustees today that the Foundation raised $78.3 million in new gifts and commitments in FY16, reaching its fundraising goal for the year and surpassing the previous year by $400,000.<\/p>\n
The fiscal year\u2019s totals \u2013 the second highest in the Foundation\u2019s history \u2014 include $16.1 million for scholarship and student support, $25.4 million for research, $29.8 million for program support, $5.3 million for faculty support, and $1.7 million for capital improvements.<\/p>\n
All told, $57 million of the dollars raised in FY16 was designated for current operations and $21 million was earmarked for the endowment \u2013 which now stands at nearly $375 million.<\/p>\n
Eighteen months ago, the Foundation publicly launched its $150 million Transform Lives scholarship initiative. To date, the Foundation is one-third of the way to reaching its goal \u2013 having raised $54.5 million for student support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Transform Lives initiative is about ensuring that UConn is financially accessible to all students,\u201d Newton said. \u201cWe\u2019re thankful to our donors for contributing more than $16 million the past fiscal year for this incredibly important mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving designated for UConn\u2019s schools, colleges, and programs \u2013 most notably the School of Engineering and the Office of Global Affairs \u2013 increased dramatically compared to the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhilanthropic support from our donors is absolutely essential to UConn\u2019s success today and in the future,\u201d UConn President Susan Herbst said. \u201cThe Foundation is harnessing the passion of UConn Nation to create an even stronger and more dynamic university, and we are incredibly grateful for their support and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
One example of how philanthropy is benefitting UConn and its students is the recent $5.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to the UConn Humanities Institute. The donation will support research regarding the balance between humility and conviction in public life. It is the largest humanities grant ever awarded to UConn, and one of the largest humanities-based research grants ever awarded in the United States.<\/p>\n
Eversource Energy is also contributing to research at UConn. It donated $9 million to the School of Engineering to help develop predictive modeling during storm outages. The research will help local officials pinpoint where power outages will occur, and should drastically improve the reliable delivery of electricity in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incredibly generous gift that Eversource has given to UConn has created the Eversource Energy Center, which allows UConn Engineering, Business, and the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources to advance important storm and outage forecasting technologies,\u201d said Kazem Kazerounian, dean of the School of Engineering. \u201cThat research is already paying dividends, as demonstrated by the recent partnering between the Center and Schneider Electric to combine and enhance their storm modeling technology. I am so grateful to Eversource for the important work they are doing through the center.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other notable donations and commitments include:<\/p>\n
Before each fiscal year begins, the Foundation sets a fundraising goal based on internal projections and discussions with potential donors. The goal for FY17 is $85 million \u2013 which would be the largest fiscal year total in Foundation history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenging goal, but we have a strong team and tremendous support from alumni and donors,\u201d said Newton. \u201cI look forward to reporting to the University\u2019s Board of Trustees one year from now and hopefully celebrating the record-breaking year. UConn Nation is up to the challenge and so are we!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Foundation brought in $78.3 million in FY16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":115454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2225,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-115453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:55:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115533,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115453\/revisions\/115533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/115454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115453"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=115453"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=115453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}