For Iowa. Forever More: The Campaign for the University of Iowa Concludes as the Most Successful Fundraising Campaign in the History of the University and the State of Iowa

2017-02-05

272,543 ALUMNI AND FRIENDS GAVE $1.975 BILLION TO SUPPORT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

Today the University of Iowa and the University of Iowa Foundation announced the successful conclusion of For Iowa. Forever More: The Campaign for the University of Iowa. More than 272,000 UI alumni and friends—enough to fill Kinnick Stadium nearly four times—contributed more than $1.975 billion to help the UI remain at the forefront of education, research and health care.

Donors from 99 Iowa counties, 50 states and 76 countries contributed to the campaign, directing their gifts to benefit the areas of the university they care about most and helping the UI pass its $1.7 billion goal. Their giving will support people and programs at Iowa for generations to come. This support includes undergraduate and graduate scholarship funds, new faculty chairs and professorships, funds that support vital research and academic programs, exceptional performing and visual arts and creative writing programs, and Hawkeye student-athletes and programs. Donors also helped make possible the construction or renovation of 13 facilities, including University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital; the Stew and LeNore Hansen Football Performance Center; and replacement facilities for Hancher Auditorium, Voxman Music Building and the Visual Arts Building.

“Our donors are helping to ensure the UI continues its role as one of the top public research universities in the nation and as the state’s premier academic medical center, with world-renowned arts programs and exceptional undergraduate and graduate programs,” said UI President Bruce Harreld. “Private giving is crucial to our university’s success, and we are incredibly thankful to everyone who contributed to the campaign.”

“Our contributors are making a tremendous impact on Iowa and the world,” said Lynette Marshall, University of Iowa Foundation president and CEO. “They are transforming lives by helping us educate our students; fund breakthrough research and life-changing health care; and support community outreach, global education and countless life-changing educational discoveries.”

More than half of the contributors to the campaign gave $100 or less, totaling $4.6 million and showing the collective power of the UI’s generous donors. Thirty-two percent of donors are alumni, and 68 percent are Iowa friends, patients and fans. Many donors chose to invest their gifts in an endowment, with annual payouts benefiting the university for future generations of students.

A number of generous donors have contributed some of the largest gifts to the campaign:

  • The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, of Muscatine, Iowa, has committed more than $71 million throughout the campaign, including a $45 million gift, the single largest gift to the campaign, to establish the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. The Iowa Neuroscience Institute will conduct research to find the causes of—and preventions, treatments, and cures for—the many diseases that affect the brain and nervous system.
  • UI alumnus John Pappajohn and Mary Pappajohn, of Des Moines, Iowa, have contributed more than $32 million to the campaign, including $26.4 million to establish the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute and to contribute to the construction of the John and Mary Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building, a state-of-the-art research facility that houses the institute. This gift helps scientists at the UI understand the fundamentals of biology and disease and extend their discoveries into real-life applications that improve human health.
  • Stephen and Andrea Wynn, of Las Vegas, Nevada, have contributed more than $25 million to the campaign in support of the UI Stephen A. Wynn Institute for Vision Research, which is dedicated to accelerating the eradication of heritable human blindness through interdisciplinary research, education and clinical care.
  • The Fraternal Order of Eagles provided more than $25 million in support to the campaign to establish the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa, which is focused on finding treatments and cures for diabetes through cutting-edge research.
  • UI alumnus Jerre Stead and Mary Joy Stead, natives of Maquoketa, Iowa, and residents of Scottsdale, Arizona, have contributed more than $25 million during the campaign for children’s medicine. The Steads supported the new UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital facility and created funds for faculty, staff and researchers in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics who are making new discoveries and improving education and patient treatments.
  • UI alumnus Henry Tippie and Patricia Tippie, of Austin, Texas, have contributed and inspired more than $23 million in gifts during the campaign. The $23 million includes a $15 million matching gift that encouraged more than $14 million in additional gifts from multiple donors to benefit students, faculty and programs in the UI Henry B. Tippie College of Business. The Tippie College of Business is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the country.

Campaign Impact

Jose Diaz is a first-generation college student who filled out his college applications with few expectations. Despite strong grades, the Illinois native knew his parents couldn’t afford tuition. Thanks to seven privately funded scholarships, Jose is a top student in the UI Henry B. Tippie College of Business; he’s a member of the Hawkinson Institute, an investment banking program for top finance majors; and he interned last summer at global services financial firm JPMorgan Chase & Co. “My parents, who didn’t have the chance to attend school beyond sixth grade, cannot believe the strides I have made through the help of the UI and, specifically, generous donors who made my experience possible.”

Christopher Turnis, 11, has spent more than one third of his life at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, a rare gastrointestinal disease, the sixth grader from Dubuque, Iowa, has undergone more than 46 surgeries and procedures. His family is thankful to have top specialists at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Iowa’s only nationally ranked children’s hospital. “Our family is thankful to donors who contribute to research and patient care, which is so critical to us,” said Kristina Turnis, Christopher’s mother. “We are excited for the new hospital, which will really deliver care that is kid and family centered.”

Aliasger K. Salem, the Lyle and Sharon Bighley Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, runs a UI lab that is conducting groundbreaking research—including work on a melanoma vaccine and bone regeneration—that will help revolutionize health care. “I am grateful to be the recipient of a named professorship—created through the generosity of donors Lyle and Sharon Bighley—that gives me the resources necessary to work closely with my students in pursuing life-saving research.”

About the University of Iowa Foundation

The UI Foundation is the preferred channel for private contributions that benefit all areas of the UI, and its mission is to promote the UI’s commitment to excellence through engagement and philanthropy. For more information about the For Iowa. Forever More. campaign, on the UI Foundation website.

Contact: Dana Larson, executive director, communications and marketing, University of Iowa Foundation, dana.larson@foriowa.org, (319) 467-3661, (917) 345-9841 (mobile).

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