Major, Corporate, & Foundation Gifts
While the state of Texas provides the basic financial foundation for teaching and learning, UHV can only achieve its full potential with the help of significant donations. University Advancement seeks the private support that enables the university to provide the best possible experience to every UHV student. Gifts that help us accomplish this goal have a transformative effect, not only on the lives of our students and faculty, but also on the donors who make them.
Major Gifts
A major gift represents not only a great financial investment but a great emotional one, as well. UHV’s major donors see the university as a vehicle able to accomplish things important to them that they cannot accomplish alone. In a real sense, a donor who makes a major gift to UHV is leveraging a university with $91.1 million in total assets to accomplish his or her personal goals such as helping deserving students, advancing research or honoring a loved one. While annual gifts generally address the immediate needs of the university, major gifts provide long-term financial stability and support in ways that touch the lives of generations of students and faculty.
For more information on larger gifts, including endowed, non-endowed, multi-year and multi-asset gifts, please University Advancement.
Corporate and Foundation Gifts
Corporations, foundations and other philanthropic organizations are valued partners in assisting UHV to accomplish its mission of “preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who will lead productive and meaningful lives.” Through the years, corporations and foundations have provided support for student and faculty research, curriculum development initiatives, financial aid, student life programs, community outreach programs and more. These partner organizations also recruit UHV graduates to join their workforces and provide the university with financial and programmatic assistance for a variety of purposes.
For more information on corporate and foundation giving, please contact Mrs. Amber Countis.
Endowing Your Gifts
For more information on endowed gifts please contact University Advancement.
What is an endowment?
An endowment is a gift that permanently supports a university program chosen by the donor. The endowment fund remains intact in perpetuity, while its earnings support students, faculty and/or programs, as designated by the donor. At the University of Houston-Victoria, an endowed scholarship can be created with $10,000. Endowed faculty positions require larger contributions.
How does UHV benefit from endowments?
Endowments allow UHV to create and maintain excellence in academics beyond what can be accomplished with funding from the state. Endowments provide the funds for scholarships, professorships and programs important to student and faculty recruitment and retention.
How can you benefit from creating an endowment?
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of establishing an endowment is that it allows you to directly accomplish your charitable goals while helping the university fund its initiatives. The reasons for creating a named endowment are varied – the satisfaction of supporting academic excellence; the gratification of furthering important research; the pleasure of honoring a spouse, family member or colleague in a way that is meaningful to him or her; the comfort of memorializing a loved one with a living legacy. Additionally, creating an endowment may result in tax savings and other financial benefits that may enable you to give more than you might have thought possible.
How can I create an endowment?
The gift for endowment purposes may take any of several forms. It can be an outright gift of cash or appreciated properties such as securities, real estate, or tangible and intangible personal property acceptable to the university. Endowments also can be created through a gift by will, a charitable trust or other life income plan, retirement plan assets or an insurance policy.
Gifts may be given or pledged over five years. You can also add to your endowment, beyond the initial funding level, through lifetime gifts, bequests and beneficiary designations from life insurance or retirement plans. Many businesses and corporations have matching-gift programs through which they match – and may double, triple or increase by even more – donations made by employees.
How are endowments managed?
When the gift or pledge is received, a Gift Agreement will be executed between you and the university. The agreement outlines the terms and conditions of your endowment gift. The University of Houston System will then administer your funds in adherence to the terms of the Gift Agreement. UHS cannot change the agreement without your consent or that of your designated representative.
Your fund will be officially endowed when the base-funding requirement is fulfilled. Your endowment will be invested in the UHS Pooled Endowment Fund. You will receive an annual report of the performance and distribution of your endowment funds from the university president.