PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 22, No. 7, Oct. 3, 2002

UI receives record $219 million in private gifts

Gifts to the UI and the UI Foundation totaled an institution record $219.6 million for fiscal year ending June 30, 2002, according to Stephen K. Rugg, UI chief financial officer and treasurer of the UI Foundation.

Rugg announced the private gift figures during the business session of the foundation’s 67th Annual Meeting on Sept. 27.

Rugg noted that giving direct to the foundation has increased each year over a five-year period, from $85 million in FY 1998 to $190.2 million in the last fiscal year. Coupled with the $29.4 million given directly to the UI, the record $219.6 million in private gift support is $72.6 million more than the $147 million in combined private gifts reported in FY 2001.

In FY 2002, alumni provided 22 percent or $48 million of the $219.6 million. Friends contributed 10 percent or $23.6 million; corporations, 44 percent or $95.6 million; foundations, 13 percent or $28.4 million; and associations, 11 percent or $24 million.

Allocation of the FY 2002 funds, as directed by the donors, included $59.3 million for academic units and programs, $51.7 million to the university’s endowment, $34.1 million for buildings and equipment, $33.2 million for research, 11.6 million for other restricted purposes, $7 million for public service and extension, $6 million for athletics, $3 million for faculty/staff compensation, and more than $2.7 million for student financial aid.

Of the $219.6 million received last year, 72 percent or $158.4 million was designated by donors for current use. Those funds provided support to a number of programs across the university’s campuses at Chicago, Springfield, and Urbana-Champaign. Twenty-four percent or $51.7 million was invested in endowed funds, which are held in pooled investment accounts under the policy supervision of the Investment Policy Committee of the Foundation Board and the Finance and Audit Committee of the UI Board of Trustees. Earnings from endowed funds help support an array of university endeavors, including student financial aid, and faculty and program support. Such investments also provide specified annuity and life-income funds for many donors.

The UI total endowment was $1.377 billion as of June 30, 2002, nearly three and one-half times greater than it was 10 years ago. And, in spite of recent stock market setbacks, the active endowment, which represents 64 percent of the university’s endowment picture, had climbed from $633.8 million at the end of FY 1998 to $885.6 million at the end of last June.

Also included in the UI’s total endowment is $352.5 million designated as revocable deferred gifts. Another $138.9 million of the endowment is in charitable trusts and other irrevocable gifts held by the foundation and others.

The foundation’s endowment goal is to provide a distribution to the university each year to meet its spending needs coupled with a desire to protect the purchasing power of the endowment against inflation. Over the past 10 years, the investment return allowed the foundation not only to meet the spending and inflation objectives, but also permitted a net real return to the endowment of 2.1 percent.

Membership in the Presidents Council, the university’s highest donor-recognition program administered by the UI Foundation — with a minimum giving requisite of $15,000 — also has grown. Rugg said membership in the Presidents Council rose from 3,606 individuals 10 years ago to 8,276 in 2002, with an increase of 174 new members from one year ago.

Gifts totaling more than $10 million to benefit Illinois