Leadership Giving
Become a Leadership Donor; Create an Endowed Scholarship
One of the greatest ways you can make a lasting impact as a leadership donor is by creating an endowed scholarship.
The gift of an endowed scholarship enables us to attract exceptional students and afford them opportunities to access an education and experiences that might not be possible otherwise.
Scholarships may be endowed with a minimum gift of $50,000. The gift may be paid over a period of five years. Donors will be recognized as members of the President's Society, which acknowledges UD’s premier benefactors for their generosity, in each of the years in which a gift is made.
FAQs
Why create endowed scholarships?
Endowments are permanent funds that provide support for UD in perpetuity. By establishing a scholarship endowment, you are making a gift that will help UD students for generations to come.
How do I create my own named scholarship endowment fund?
You can create your own named scholarship endowment fund with (1) a gift of $50,000 or (2) a $50,000 pledge payable over no more than five years. As you make gifts into your scholarship fund, your gifts will form the “corpus” of the endowment. The corpus will be invested by UD with the goal to grow the “market value” of your fund. The market value of any endowed fund is the corpus, plus the net investment return on the endowment, minus any endowment distributions.
What is an endowment distribution?
The endowment distribution is the amount of money distributed from the endowed scholarship fund each year to be used as “the scholarship.”
Who decides the amount of the yearly endowment distribution?
UD’s Board of Trustees sets the “spending rate”. The spending rate is applied to the market value of each endowed fund and the resulting figure is the endowment distribution.
How much money does a scholarship endowment provide each year as “the scholarship”?
The current “spending rate” set by the Board of Trustees at their October 2021 meeting is 5.3%.* Thus, an endowed scholarship fund with a market value of $50,000 will produce a scholarship of $2,650. An endowed scholarship fund with a market value of $100,000 will produce a scholarship of $5,300.
As more gifts are received into the endowment fund from you or other donors (adding to the corpus), and as investment returns grow the market value, the endowment distribution will similarly grow because the spending rate of 5.3% will be applied to a greater market value.
*The spending rate is subject to change with Board approval.
When does the endowment begin to make distributions?
Pursuant to our gift policy, endowed funds begin to make distributions one year after the fund is fully endowed, that is, once the corpus of the fund reaches $50,000.
What governs the use of a named scholarship fund?
You and the University will execute a gift agreement which will govern the naming and the use of your fund. You can name the fund for yourself, your family, or a favorite professor. Many donors will designate that their scholarship benefit students majoring in a particular academic discipline, or be used for their Rome Semester. Other scholarships are “undesignated”.
Can others contribute to my scholarship fund?
Yes!
Anyone can contribute to your scholarship fund, but the scholarship will still be
governed by the terms of the gift agreement you have executed with UD. The more gifts
you or others make to your fund, the more students UD can help!
How is my scholarship fund stewarded?
You will receive an endowment report every year detailing the gifts you have made into your fund, the market value of your fund, the endowment distributions made from the fund, and how the endowment distribution was used. We also encourage all students receiving scholarships to write to the donors of their scholarship. We also facilitate meetings between donors and scholarship recipients when you visit campus.
If I cannot create my own endowment at this time, can I contribute to an existing scholarship endowment?
Yes!
We encourage you to look at a list of existing endowed scholarships and support the
scholarship of your choosing. We would welcome additional gifts of any size to any
of those existing endowments. The more gifts we receive, the more students we can
help!