For The Future, a campaign that raises funds for hundreds of scholarships benefiting thousands of Penn State students, is aiming to raise $120 million in scholarship endowments through the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program.
Starting March 1, the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program will double funds available for students through a 10 percent annual match for newly endowed gifts of $50,000 or higher, according to Penn State Live.
The intended purpose of the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program is to keep a Penn State education accessible to all qualified students, regardless of their financial means, Penn State Spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.
The program has a unique matching component in the fact that the university matches five percent of the principal of each gift annually and combines these funds with income from the endowment to effectively double the financial impact of the scholarship, Powers said.
The Trustee Matching Scholarship program is just one part of Penn State's efforts to create more aid for students and has been successful, raising $97.7 million to date, Powers said.
In the release, President Rodney Erickson said the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program has been highly effective in meeting the need of scholarship support for students.
“Now that we have reached the program’s original goal of $100 million in scholarship endowments, we’re aiming higher, for a total of $120 million, and we believe that the increased match will convey to our supporters just how much Penn State values their commitment to our students,” Erickson said.
David Lieb, associate vice president for development in fundraising units, estimated that more than 800 Trustee Matching Scholarship endowments have been created since the campaign started in 2007.
The For the Future campaign has set a goal for student support of $443 million dollars, Lieb said.
“So far we have raised roughly 85 percent of that goal,” Lieb said. “I am fairly confident we will reach that objective before the program ends in June 2014.”
Lieb added that the 10 percent match the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program is offering would help generate new need-based scholarships from donors.
“The program has provided a tremendous incentive for donors who decide to pledge because they are leveraging additional support,” Lieb said. “I think it gives our staff an opportunity to talk to more people and helps provide an affordable education to need-based students.”
