Financial Updates | Upcoming Meetings | Campus News and Fundraising Highlights
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the summer edition of DashBOARD, our quarterly newsletter for CU Foundation trustees.
We are celebrating a successful year as we close out our books on fiscal year 2017 – a year that produced outstanding investment returns and a record breaking amount of philanthropic gifts given to CU through the Foundation.
As of June 30, 2017, the University’s 2,635 endowments managed by the Foundation were valued at $1.22 billion, the total value of the Foundation’s long term investment pool was $1.52 billion and the Foundation’s total assets were $1.89 billion. The LTIP’s investment performance was 15% for the year ended June 30. See investment performance details.
Gifts received by the Foundation for the benefit of CU totaled $187 million in fiscal year 2017, or $9 million more than in fiscal year 2016. Kudos to our partners at CU Advancement who do such a good job connecting donors with their passions! See total private support figures.
We are also celebrating the creation of the new Benson Society. Earlier this summer, the Foundation’s board of directors established a giving society for donors with cumulative university-wide giving of $1 million or more and resolved that this new giving society will be called the “Benson Society” in honor of the many contributions that Bruce and Marcy Benson have made to the University of Colorado. Read our news release about the Benson Society.
And we are celebrating the accomplishments of two long time trustees and directors as they complete their service on the Foundation’s board of directors. Fred Bradford and Ed Osborne have been outstanding board leaders and we are pleased to be able to recognize their years of loyal service. Read more about their accomplishments.
I look forward to seeing you all at our next board of trustees meeting in Boulder in November. This fall we will welcome an enthusiastic group of 20 new trustees as we gather to savor the many delights of a fall weekend at CU Boulder.
Best regards,
Jack Finlaw
President and CEO
University of Colorado Foundation
Total Private Support
Donors made 65,210 gifts in fiscal year 2017, totaling $386.3 million in private support benefitting CU. This total reflects the seventh straight record-breaking year for private support, and the eighth consecutive year donors have exceeded the previous year’s total in giving.
LTIP Investment Performance
For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2017
15%LTIP
15.28%Policy Benchmark
Financials
As of June 30, 2017
$1.5BLTIP Value
$1.2BEndowment Value
2,635Endowments
Fred Bradford and Ed Osborne – Thanks for your service to the CU Foundation
Two outstanding volunteers are retiring from the Foundation’s board of directors after six years of service. (Ed previously served a two-year stint on the board in the early 2000s when his expertise was needed on the Audit Committee.) The good news is that both Ed and Fred will continue to serve as Foundation trustees.
Fred brought his wisdom and legal expertise to the deliberations of the board. He also brought his passion for CU’s athletics programs. Fred has been a dedicated supporter of CU Boulder’s athletic department for over 28 years. Through the Bradford scholarship endowment, Fred and his wife Lawren provide scholarship support to student athletes in the CU Boulder football program. Hugh Charles, Rodney Stewart, Blake Behrens, Christian Powers and current recipient Ronnie Blackmon are among the many student athletes who have benefitted from a Bradford scholarship. Fred is also a fan of the men’s basketball program for which he has held season tickets for the past ten years, and he has supported other athletic programs such as lacrosse and golf. His fellow directors will long remember Fred’s wit and sage advice.
A long time member and chair of the board’s Audit Committee, Ed has played a key role in reviewing and improving the Foundation’s annual audited financial statements, tax returns, donor compliance programs and risk mitigation efforts. Ed and his wife Mary have made CU a philanthropic priority, serving as the UCCS chairs for the Creating Futures campaign. And their many financial contributions have been matched by their generosity of spirit and their sharing of their time and talents with UCCS faculty and students. Ed has served on the UCCS College of Engineering and Applied Science Advisory Board, where he has given particular support to the Senior Design Project, a judged student engineering competition. Ed led the effort to construct the Center for Science and Engineering at UCCS. This facility, now named for Ed and Mary, nearly doubled the academic and research space available for the study of engineering and science at UCCS. Ed has served on the Reach Your Peak Scholarship community board, adding his guidance to its programming and fundraising efforts to support first generation college students. In 2016, Ed and Mary each were honored by the UCCS College of Business with its Lifetime Entrepreneur Award. And their love for the theater and other performing arts led Ed and Mary to contribute to and help fundraise for the new Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS, which includes the new Osborne Theater. Ed’s experience and passion for CU will be missed by his fellow directors.
All of us at CU are grateful for the extraordinary generosity and outstanding service of these two fine gentlemen.
2017 Trustee Meetings
Trustee reception at CU Boulder
Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017
Trustee and director meetings at CU Boulder
Friday, Nov. 10, 2017
Trustee reception at CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018
Trustee and director meetings at CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Friday, Feb. 16, 2018
Trustee reception at UCCS
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Trustee meeting at UCCS
Friday, May 4, 2018
Director meeting at CU Foundation
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Trustee reception at CU Denver
Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018
Trustee and director meetings at CU Denver
Friday, Aug. 17, 2018
Campus Private Support Highlights and News for May-June 2017
CU Anschutz
Longtime supporter Rebecca Roser (’75) gave $400,000 to the CU Cancer Center endowment to support research and clinical care. This fund helps recruit and retain top talent who advance research and move new therapies to patient bedsides more quickly.
Curt Freed, MD, a CU professor and head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, has made five gifts in 2017, totaling more than $300,000. His lifetime support of more than $1 million ensures that research continues to develop methods of manufacturing dopamine neurons from human stem cells and help stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Wag Schorr, MD (’63), made a principal gift through a donor choice fund. Dr. Schorr is a longtime supporter of School of Medicine scholarships and has recently started giving to support stem cell research.
CU Boulder
Lloyd and Mary Gelman, longtime patrons and supporters of the College of Music, documented a bequest for $500,000 to create an endowment supporting the dean’s priorities for the college. They are delighted that their gift will count toward the $50 million music+ campaign goal.
Eighty-three donors have given $627,000 to fund the David Clough Endowed Faculty Fellowship in the College of Engineering & Applied Science. It honors Professor Emeritus Dave Clough’s commitment to students in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering.
The Hubert L. “Hooks” Jones Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. has established a $50,000 Scholarship Endowment to support CU Boulder education students who are inspired to continue the Tuskegee Airmen legacy. Read more.
CU Denver
CU Denver’s Advancement office moved back to the Lawrence Street Center this summer. The entire Advancement team extends its appreciation to the CU Foundation Trustees for supporting such a beautiful renovation of its new suite of offices.
The ACE Mentor Program of America made a gift of $29,700 to support the participation of 27 high school students in the College of Architecture and Planning’s Summer Camp. The students, most of whom were first-generation college-bound students, spent five days on campus learning the fundamentals of architecture, drawing, design and prefabrication, culminating in the design and construction of outdoor workstations in a public park intended to encourage working outside.
In recognition of the education he received as a graduate of CU Denver’s Music and Entertainment Industry Studies department, which is ranked as one of the top music business programs in the country by Billboard magazine, Steven Sirotkin, owner of Altitude Recording Studio near Boulder, has made a bequest of his recording studio assets to the College of Arts & Media.
Paul Lipinski, who has audited classes in biology, chemistry and physics for 10 semesters through the Lifelong Learners Program, has endowed a scholarship for biology students with a recent gift of $27,000. This is the second scholarship he has endowed for students in the sciences at CU Denver.
UCCS
The Wisner family made a $25,000 memorial commitment to endow the Ron Wisner Human Spirit and Leadership Award. This award is presented annually to a UCCS student who demonstrates outstanding leadership skills and will exemplify the vision, integrity and leadership ideals of Ron Wisner, former Dean of Students at UCCS.
The Albanesi family made a $25,000 commitment to endow a scholarship for graduate students pursuing a degree in sociology at UCCS. Dr. Heather Albanesi is a professor of sociology at UCCS.
Executive Women International Colorado Springs Chapter made a gift to the KPWE endowment of $125,000. This addition to the endowment will fund a full scholarship every year.