Annual Giving Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2019-2020 ANNUAL GIVING REPORT University of NORTH ALABAMA ANNUAL GIVING REPORT 2019 – 2020 MESSAGES 1 Harry Smith ’64 2 A Note From the President 2 Vice President’s Report SPOTLIGHTS 4 Legacy Initiative 8 Women of Influence HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 12 Lifetime Cumulative Giving 12 2019-20 Giving Levels 17 Courtview Society ENDOWMENTS 18 Endowed Funds FOUNDATION BOARD’S MESSAGE Dear Alumni and Friends: It is my honor and of your heart, enable privilege to serve as our students, faculty, the chair of the UNA and staff to achieve the Foundation Board of greatness that is within Directors. In this role, I them. It is because of you serve with a remarkable that our enrollment and group of men and students are thriving! women, my fellow It is because of you that Foundation Board our faculty are thriving! directors, who are deeply It is because of you that committed to raising the University of North money to empower the Alabama is thriving! The University of North UNA Foundation Board Alabama to reach its full of Directors recognizes potential while leading you and all that you it to be the best choice a do…and we are so very student could make to grateful. begin or continue their Again, thank you for college career. your support, and please I want to offer my stay well. Roar Lions! heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you Blessings, for your remarkable generosity to UNA. Your Harry Smith ’64 gifts, while fulfilling the Chair, UNA Foundation philanthropic passion Board of Directors 2019 - 2020 • Annual Giving Report 1 VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT a note from the PRESIDENT facilities. Here, too, there is good news to report. Harrison Hall, the beautiful new home of the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions, is now open for business. Renovations that have transformed Collier Library into a preferred gathering place for our students. There’s also great excitement surrounding the restoration of Harrison Plaza, about which you’ll read more in the pages that follow. The timing of the return of our iconic fountain couldn’t be better as it will Dear UNA Family and Friends: help symbolize the renewal of UNA A lot has happened in the 12 months as this pandemic begins to lift. You’ll since our last Annual Report. In December, also read about Women of Influence, a portion of the Harrison Fountain Dear Friends, an initiative that is near and dear to collapsed. In March, COVID-19 was Like all institutions of higher Dena’s heart. It’s exciting to see what declared a pandemic. May brought civil education, the pandemic of 2020 has this group has already accomplished unrest over racial injustice issues. And in challenged us at the University of and what they plan to do in the future. June, our beloved Una passed away. North Alabama in ways small and None of this would have been James Lane Allen once said, large. We’ve been forced to adapt possible without the support of “Adversity does not build character, in all facets of university life. From generous donors like you. The it reveals it.” In the exemplary Spring course delivery to athletics and from scholarships you endow are essential 2020 edition of UNA Magazine, referring finances to student engagement, this to our enrollment success, just as your only to the pandemic, I wrote, “We has been one strange year. gifts were critical in the renovation of will overcome this for the same reason Despite these challenges, our Collier Library and the construction that this great University has overcome University – your University – is of Harrison Hall. And as for that work adversities for 190 years…because of the thriving and showing the spirit underway in the plaza, it is again your quality and character of the people!” Not and grit that has become our support of the Legacy Initiative that is surprisingly, through personal, national, hallmark throughout the last 190 making that possible. and global struggles, the collective years. Consider some of our recent Dena and I are humbled by your UNA Family has shown ourselves to accomplishments. Enrollment for Fall generosity and inspired by the heart be giants of character. I would like to 2020 set a new record with a total of you show for this University. So we note just a few of your many, many almost 8400 students, up 4 percent speak for ourselves as well as for the accomplishments during this past year: over Fall 2019. Also up this fall are faculty, staff, and students in saying our retention and graduation rates THANK YOU for all you do for UNA. • We had five different Giving – and that speaks volumes about We appreciate you! Days that resulted in 414 donors student satisfaction with the UNA giving 600 gifts totaling $256,033. experience. Roar Lions! • We were able to secure namings Integral to that experience is our for the Honors College, the Kenneth D. Kitts beautiful campus and state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Program, and one 2 University of North Alabama VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT of the Art Galleries…each naming ensuring the perpetual vibrancy of the namesake! • We were able to establish 26 new funds. • We were able to establish 29 endowed funds. • We developed Women of Influence, Funding the Military and Veterans Service Center, Funding the Presidential Mentors Academy, and The Legacy Initiative as fundraising programs. On behalf of the University, our students, faculty, and staff: Thank you. Thank you for sharing your lives with us, for giving selflessly and for having the visionary leadership to empower UNA, our students and our faculty to become all they are capable of becoming. The example you set by the lives you live truly inspires us all! I would also like to thank the UNA Foundation Board of Directors. Each one of you is so uniquely gifted, and we are blessed to have the opportunity to serve alongside you. Thank you for giving so selflessly of your time, talent, and treasure. You are greatly valued and appreciated. Finally, to the UNA Advancement Family I have the honor and privilege of serving with: There are not words to express adequately my deep admiration, appreciation, and respect for each one of you. You have thrived through every challenge, and your efforts are making such a profound difference for the donors we are privileged to serve and the students and faculty we are honored to empower. Thank you for all you do, but most of all thank you for being the remarkable people you are. Please be safe, and I hope to see you all very soon. Roar Lions! Kevin R. Haslam Vice President for University Advancement Executive Director, UNA Foundation 2019 - 2020 • Annual Giving Report 3 The Heart of UNA Beats On A fountain’s collapse spurs the creation of a new legacy initiative By Michelle Rupe Eubanks ’96 For the Annual Report 4 University of North Alabama 2019 - 2020 • Annual Giving Report 5 Forgetting the pandemic and all of the ways it has changed life on the University of North Alabama campus, the collapse of Harrison Fountain at the end of 2019 perhaps set the tone for the change and disruption that lay ahead. UNA’s President Dr. Ken Kitts’ response to rebuild the iconic center of campus, however, was swift and decisive. It was clear that the landmark, often considered the heart of UNA, would be rebuilt, and along with the reconstructed fountain, the surrounding plaza would get a facelift as well. It became the task of Vice President for University Advancement Kevin Haslam to fund the initiative that would bring Harrison Fountain and Plaza back to its former glory, and thus, The Legacy Initiative was born. Haslam spoke about how vital this process has been as well as how clearly UNA’s alumni and friends have responded to the call to help. 6 University of North Alabama Q: Harrison Fountain was built on a foundation of giving. How way to honor a loved one or someone who encouraged them does that foundation continue with this initiative? on their journey, who is no longer with us. Every reason, like every life story, is beautiful and every bit as varied. The Plaza is A: The Initiative is built on the foundation of selflessness and quickly becoming this beautiful collage of life stories, forever giving for the greater good of the University, and it establishes memorialized. a legacy permanently etched in Harrison Plaza. These are traits that the Harrison family continues to exemplify to this day. It Q: How will the initiative evolve as we get past the rebuilding of was through Dr. Don and Laura Harrison’s vision and selfless the fountain? Where will we go from here? leadership that the Plaza and Fountain were established, a vision which blessed many during the past 17 years. It A: Once we have fully funded the restoration of the Fountain is this spirit that has inspired many of us to participate in and Plaza, we will move on to Phase II of the Initiative, which the restoration. The Legacy Initiative was developed by the is the 1830 Fund. The 1830 Fund is the University’s Annual Advancement team with the intent of giving everyone who Fund, with the monies being used for the greatest needs and wants to participate the opportunity to do so. Dr. and Mrs. emerging priorities of UNA as determined by the President. The Harrison initially made the fountain and plaza possible, and we subtitle of the Legacy Initiative is “Restoring the Heart of UNA.” want everyone who shares their spirit to have the opportunity to It has two meanings: in Phase I, the Initiative is about restoring do the same.