UCA fundraised over $20 million in fiscal year 2023, following a six-year trend of raising over $10 million and beating internal goals.
According to a UCA news release, “More than 6,800 donors made gifts throughout the last year with more than 1,200 of those donors being new. Over half of UCA faculty and staff made contributions this year for a total of almost $700,000. Additionally, 735 households and organizations gave $1,000 or more as members of the President’s Society.”
UCA’s annual Day of Giving event is a large moneymaker for the University, with 2023’s event raising over $1.3 million in 24 hours.
The Purple Circle Fund, which contributes to student-athletes, raised the most during 2023’s Day of Giving, totaling $210,476.
The total number raised, $20.2 million, brings the UCA Foundation’s — the university’s private fundraising group — total endowment to $52 million.
Planned investments, “donations made through an estate plan such as bequests, charitable trusts or annuities,” raised about $4 million.
As for the other roughly $13 million, tax filings from the UCA Foundation say it creates revenue in multiple ways, including membership fees, investment income, rent, sales, royalties and events.
In tax years 2021 and 2020, the UCA Foundation reported most of its income on the form as “all other contributions, gifts, grants and similar amounts,” which are not individually listed like the aforementioned streams of revenue.
According to the news release, since the UCA Foundation was created, it has given over $19.3 million in private scholarships.
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In 2020 the Foundation reported that it gave $1,466,899 in scholarship funds to 758 recipients.
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In 2021, that number grew to $1,799,424 awarded to 938 recipients.
In both tax years, the Foundation awarded UCA with additional funds for “support for University of Central Arkansas activities.”
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In 2020, the Foundation gave $1.2 million to the university for this purpose, and $1.6 million in 2021.
Tax filings for 2022 are not yet available.
Mary Lackie Bane, vice president of University Advancement, said that the Office of Legacy Planning, which helps to coordinate planned gifts, is part of planning for the future.
“Legacy planning is an important tool for helping alumni and friends achieve their dreams of supporting the university,” she said. “Donors can leave their legacy at UCA through different kinds of estate gifts or life insurance policies that are larger and more impactful than they ever thought possible.”
UCA magazine, a biannual publication from the university’s Office of Advancement, featured Dean of the Schedler Honors College Patricia Smith for her planned gift.
Smith was inducted into the Doyne Legacy Society, a group reserved for individuals who include the UCA Foundation as a benefactor of their estate.
Smith told the magazine, “We set up a life insurance policy to make sure our kids were taken care of. There was room in the policy where we could set aside $25,000 as a planned gift for UCA, which is a much larger gift than we could give right now.”
Smith earmarked her gift for the Schedler Honors College and said that one advantage of a planned gift like hers was that it allowed her to choose the areas on campus she cares most about.
President Houston Davis said that the $20.2 million raised in FY ‘23 comes from a “strong base of support from our alumni, friends, students, faculty, staff and community.”
In the seventh year of UCA’s fundraising campaign UCA Now, Davis reflected on recent years: “Even as we have navigated through a global pandemic and a changing economy, our donors have recognized the work that we are doing to change students’ lives, and they want to be a part of that success.”
UCA Now: Impact Arkansas and Beyond is a fundraising campaign that began in 2016 intending to raise $100 million. According to the campaign’s website, it has raised $93.9 million, and the campaign’s end date is June 30, 2024.
To learn more about UCA Foundation private scholarships, visit https://uca.edu/foundation/scholarships/. Applications open November 1.