Endowing a gift at Penn State Hazleton
Endowed gifts are vital to the long-term performance of this campus. We continue to build our endowment, and thanks to donors like you we have made significant strides. Today, over 150 of our student are receiving much needed financial aid in the form of endowed awards.
Cyril W. Sernak, '50, benefactor of the first Trustee Scholarship at Penn State Hazleton, elegantly expressed in a recent letter, "It is heartening to know that a scholarship endowment will continue to help needy students long after the donors have gone to their eternal rewards." He added, "I hope my gift motivates other alumni and friends of Penn State to share some of their resources with this great University for a noble cause."
He is pictured with daughter, Diane, '78.
Importantly, endowed scholarships give the donor the opportunity to establish guidelines for how funds from their endowment will be used, thus ensuring that their area interests benefit from their contributions. Endowed scholarships and awards continue to generate funds for deserving students in perpetuity as well as increase in value over time. They also allow the donor or other interested parties to continue to donate to the endowment, thereby ensuring that awards keep pace with inflation and tuition increases over time.
Award: $20,000
An academic award recognizes academic excellence, and can be named for the donor, designated in a specific academic discipline, or made a general award. For example, an academic excellence award in Information Sciences and Technology can be established as an excellent incentive for students in that particular major.
Undergraduate scholarship: $50,000
An undergraduate scholarship can be named for the donor and generally recognizes academic potential. It can be designated for general scholarship support or for a specific academic area. Here again, a scholarship can be established, for example, in the new business degree or for students enrolled or planning to enroll in Information Sciences and Technology.
Trustee Matching Scholarship: $50,000
Trustee Matching Scholarship: $50,000. Penn State's Board of Trustees approved a groundbreaking philanthropy program that makes donors partners with the University in supporting our students. Through the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, the awards generated for deserving students is matched three-to-one in perpetuity with funds from the university's operating budget. This effectively triples the impact of a donor's gift to the campus. This level of matching, which represents an increase from the program's original doubling of awards, will be available from March 1, 2013 through the end of the For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students which concludes on June 30, 2014, or until the pool of matching support has been exhausted. Importantly, all scholarships designated for the Penn State Hazleton Campus will remain in perpetuity to benefit students here and once qualified as Trustee Matching Scholarships the awards generated will also receive the three-to-one match in perpetuity.
University Professorship: $1,000,000
An endowed professorship provides resources to reward a renowned professor to pursue new lines of research or innovative teaching methods. A named professorship may enable a scholar to spend more time in direct contact with particularly gifted undergraduates. Income from the fund supplements a distinguished faculty member's salary, and provides funds for graduate assistant stipends, staff support and related expenses.
Other types of major gifts include:
Capital projects
(buildings or additions to buildings) that have been approved by the University. Some additional facts about capital gifts:
- A building can be named for a donor if at least fifty percent of the cost of the building has been given by that donor in the form of either cash or funds derived over a maximum five-year pledge period.
- "Parts" of a building may be named for a donor, i.e. a room, a study lounge, or a laboratory, with the same cost/gift ratio.
Early Career Professorship: $500,000
This endowment offers early recognition and additional support for outstanding young University faculty. It is designed to rotate every three years to a new recipient, and it offers deans and campus executives the opportunity to recruit and retain rising academic stars. Through the Faculty Endowment Challenge, donors can leverage a 1:2 match from the University to establish new early career professorships in any of Penn State's academic units with a commitment of $334,000.
Program Support: $25,000
Program endowments support activities as diverse as undergraduate research, study abroad, and the performing arts.
How gifts can be given:
- Cash
- An irrevocable pledge over a period not to exceed five years.
- Highly appreciated stock, which provides an opportunity for donors to avoid capital gains taxes.
- A variety of planned giving instruments (annuity trusts, lead trusts), that respond to the donor's needs for estate planning while at the same time making a generous gift to the University.
All donors of gifts to Penn State Hazleton at the endowed level become members of the Highacres Society and receive a Highacres Society medallion. They are invited to the Society's annual dinner to meet students and faculty who are recipients of scholarships and funds from endowed gifts.