Funding for fully-endowed professorships, chairs and distinguished chairs at UW-Madison has reached nearly $250 million following John and Tashia Morgridge’s donation challenge to alumni last November, according to a Tuesday press release.
While initial estimates said it would take several years to raise enough money to maximize the $100 million the Morgridges agreed to match, donations reached $125 million in seven months. The Morgridges raised their cap to match the new amount.
Collected contributions will fund creating or increasing an endowment for a named chair, a position permanently paid for with revenue from an endowment fund. Every school and college will receive or enhance at least one new chair, which would increase the number of fully-endowed named positions at UW-Madison to 300, up from its current 142.
Donations will be invested in the UW Foundation’s endowment and will generate more than $11 million annually to schools and colleges for faculty in these professorships and chairs, according to the release.
Donated funds are the only resource available to fund chaired and named professorships. These statuses help bolster investment in student education, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in the release.
“This is about much more than the dollars that go to the faculty members,” Blank said in the release. “It is about the ability to recruit and retain outstanding faculty who attract top graduate and undergraduate students and compete for federal research dollars.”
