University of Mary Washington alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends came together during this year’s Founders Day Challenge to make $108,334 in gifts and gift commitments to the Fund for Mary Washington.
President Richard V. Hurley set a goal of raising $108,000 in two weeks (March 1 through 14) in honor of the University’s 108th founding anniversary.
“Private support provides essential funding for the programs that define each student’s UMW experience,” President Hurley said. “During the Founders Day Challenge and throughout the year, our donors demonstrate their commitment to the University’s mission through their giving. I am grateful for each and every gift and thrilled to be able to announce that we exceeded the goal.”
The challenge supported the Fund for Mary Washington, the University’s single largest source of unrestricted private support. Gifts to the Fund enable UMW to support students, programs and other needs not covered by the state’s operating budget. The Fund provides critical dollars for unexpected student needs, scholarship support, career services, alumni events, faculty retention programs and more.
The Fund for Mary Washington is just one of seven areas of priority within UMW’s $50 million Mary Washington First Campaign. The campaign, which will close June 30, 2016, has garnered generous support from more than 16,000 donors since it was launched in 2011.
UMW was established as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg on March 14, 1908, with the assistance of Virginia State Sen. C. O’Conor Goolrick. It was the second institution in the state devoted exclusively to the training of teachers for public schools, after the Normal School for Women at Farmville, now Longwood University. More on the University’s founding and the celebration of Founders Day is posted here.
