the University of Georgia Foundation - established 1937

UGA Campus

Overview of the Foundation

  The University of Georgia Foundation accepts and manages donor funds on behalf of the University of Georgia to enhance academic programs and opportunities at the university. The foundation continues to be one of the most effective ways for individuals to support the University of Georgia.

  The foundation is overseen by a 37-member Board of Trustees that includes individuals of diverse backgrounds and experience, and includes leaders in business, community service and philanthropy.

  As a steward of donor funds, the UGA Foundation has an outstanding record of fiscal and financial management, with an investment portfolio that has outperformed key market indexes for more than 10 years.

  From its beginnings 70 years ago, the foundation today has amassed more than $500 million in assets, and provides more than $25 million to the university each year to support student scholarships, chairs and professorships, academic research and other programs.

Timeline

The growth of the University of Georgia Foundation has mirrored the expansion and success of the university itself over the years:

1937: Foundation was founded by a group of alumni who were concerned about the academic quality of their alma mater. It allowed the University of Georgia, for the first time in its history, to raise private funds in an organized way that would be used for scholarships and to attract top-quality instructors to campus.

1945: Assets approached $250,000 and the foundation made its first grant – a $600 supplement for the salary of history Professor E. Merton Coulter.

1950s: Foundation provided a $10,000 grant to ward off a raid on promising faculty and to raise salaries to attract better candidates. Part of the grant also was used to help create a microfilm file of Georgia newspapers in the university library. A few years later, another $10,000 grant was approved for the naming of the first eight "Foundation Professors."

1966: A National Merit Scholars Program underwritten by the foundation made 15 awards to Georgia finalists. During the next 10 years, the program grew to one of the nation’s largest.

1971: Foundation began to create a series of “super scholarships” which resulted in the Foundation Fellows Program, patterned after the Morehead Scholarships of North Carolina.

1972: The University of Georgia hired staff to support the fundraising efforts of the foundation.

1980s – 1990s: Several organized fundraising drives, combined to raise more than $240 million.

2000 – 2008: The foundation continues as a primary source of funding for scholarships, endowed chairs, professorships and other academic endeavors at the University of Georgia.  The foundation’s investment committee has an outstanding investment track record, outperforming every major market index for more than a decade, placing it among the top performing college foundations nationwide and well ahead of all major market indexes.

Today: The University of Georgia Foundation is independent of the university, operating in a cooperative spirit with the University of Georgia under terms of a shared services agreement.