Dear Friends:

Fall is always a very special time at the University of Georgia with students back on campus and the pageantry and excitement of college football. This fall has been especially gratifying for those of us associated with the University of Georgia Foundation as we have been witness to honors accorded some of our fellow trustees for their generosity and service to the university.

We’ll touch on a few of those stories in this newsletter and bring you up to date on some important activities that are coming up in the near future.

Soccer complex named in honor of Turner family
As many of you know, University of Georgia Foundation Trustee Jack Turner comes from a family that, over the years, has given so much to the university in the form of generous gifts and tireless service. To honor their legacy, the university recognized the Turner family on September 1 by officially christening the soccer complex in their name. Shortly before a match between the Georgia Soccer Dogs and Brigham Young University, “The Turner Family Soccer Complex” was officially named in ceremonies on the field (better known as “the pitch” in Soccer parlance).

Opened in 1998, the complex includes a soccer stadium with a 1,500-seat grandstand and room for up to 1,750 spectators, a press box with seating for 20 and a full practice field. Recent additions include locker rooms for both home and visitors, a players’ lounge, coaches’ offices, concession stands and a promotions booth under the grandstand.

Foundation’s endowment yields annual growth
2006 demonstrated that the University of Georgia Foundation remains a chief avenue through which donors can make contributions. The foundation expended more than $25 million for the benefit of the university while its endowment grew 12.7 percent in fiscal year 2006 to $567 million. This is a tribute to the responsible stewardship and deft management of our Investment Committee, which has produced double digit returns on the foundation’s investments on an annualized basis over the last decade.

New Scholarship Endowed by our own Bill Young, Jr.
Those of you who attended the Georgia victory over UAB on September 16 enjoyed the on-field recognition accorded our vice chairman and his lovely wife. Bill and Margaret Young were honored by the athletic department for endowing a football scholarship. Those of you who are acquainted with the Youngs know that such philanthropy is nothing new. The couple funded a scholarship in honor of Bill’s mother, Jane, through the Neel Reid Memorial Scholarship Fund in the College of Environmental Design, and Bill, along with his brothers Howard and Steve, endowed a football scholarship several years ago in honor of their father, Bill Young, Sr. The elder Mr. Young was a football letterman who played for the Bulldogs from 1952 through 1954 under legendary Coach Wallace Butts.

Excellent media coverage
Foundation Fellow Chloe Thompson, 22, was highlighted in the August 21 Time magazine cover story “Who Needs Harvard?” which focused on the trend of more students looking beyond Ivy League schools for their academic experience. An international business major from Atlanta, Thompson never left the country before attending UGA. In her four years as a Foundation Fellow, however, her scholarship paid for travel in 10 countries, including Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Vietnam, China and Egypt.

This piece comes on the heels of an April Wall Street Journal article which featured Lucas Puente, a current Foundation Fellow who chose the University of Georgia over scholarship offers from Stanford, Dartmouth and Penn.

One of the most interesting, politically-focused magazines in the south, James, included a column from Dick Yarbrough in its August edition that focused on the UGA Foundation. Dick wrote an outstanding piece that underscored how the foundation is still alive and well, managing donor funds responsibly and enjoying a good relationship with the university. As you may know, he is an emeritus trustee of the foundation.

Thank you, Dick, for your thoughtful piece in James and for your outstanding service to the foundation and the university over the years!

Speaking of media…
If you’re a reader of The Wall Street Journal you may want to keep an eye out for Kyle Wingfield’s writings. Kyle is an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe whose columns also appear in the U.S. edition of the paper from time to time. He is a native of Dalton who attended the University of Georgia on a Foundation Fellowship, graduating in 2001 with an ABJ in publication management. Kyle spent three years honing his journalistic skills with the Associated Press in Atlanta and Montgomery, Ala. prior to taking his present position with the newspaper in 2004.

UGA Foundation 2006 Annual Report is coming your way!
Work is well underway on the compilation of the 2006 University of Georgia Foundation Annual Report. This will be a very attractive publication that will be an informative piece we hope you will want to keep. It is on schedule to be completed and in mailboxes this fall.

Let us hear from you!
We’re always happy to pass along good news from our fellow trustees. If you have interesting information to share, we would love to hear from you! Just contact Chip Stewart with our communications firm at (404) 419-9224 or via email at chip@cookerly.com and let him know what’s up. Your information will be considered for inclusions in future editions of this newsletter.

With another school year well underway, it is humbling to see all that has been made possible at the University of Georgia through the generosity of our donors. Through a wide range of scholarships and faculty support programs, we are helping to bring the best and the brightest to Athens. In addition, a walk through campus on a glorious fall afternoon gives one an appreciation for the beautiful new buildings that were made possible through contributions from people like you. Whether it’s funding for scholarships, faculty support or to help with new campus construction projects, the gifts that are made to the university through the University of Georgia Foundation are sincerely appreciated.

Read Morton