KU Endowment sets record with $184.6 million in support to KU last year

Kansas University Endowment supplied KU with $184.6 million in fiscal year 2015 — 48 percent more than the previous year and “by far” the most ever, endowment leaders said recently.

The large amount does not appear to be a flash in the pan.

Endowment President Dale Seuferling said the organization’s annual support to KU will continue to increase, though the current fundraising campaign and some big construction projects did contribute to this year’s extra-large jump.

“We annually strive to increase that support, so the support that we can provide the university is dependable and it’s growing,” Seuferling said. “When we have major campaigns such as Far Above, they do provide a ‘dunk,’ so to speak, in that level of support.”

Such direct financial support to the university comes via two paths, said Rosita Elizalde-McCoy, senior vice president of communications and marketing for KU Endowment.

Some is from expendable gifts, one-time donations that fund things like construction projects.

Several major privately funded construction projects contributed to Endowment’s spike in 2015, Elizalde-McCoy said. She said while 100 percent of each project’s funding didn’t necessarily flow to KU during fiscal year 2015, large portions did.

The biggest contributing construction projects are the $70 million Capitol Federal Hall, future new home of the business school; the $18 million DeBruce Center, being constructed to house James Naismith’s “Original Rules of Basket Ball”; and $11.2 million McCarthy Hall, the on-campus apartment building where the men’s basketball team now lives.

The other money comes from endowed funds, which provide support year after year, Elizalde-McCoy said. Many of those funds support scholarships and faculty positions in perpetuity.

She said highlights include these recent significant gifts: a $1.36 million gift from the estate of John P. Kaiser and his wife, Mary Kaiser, to provide scholarships for journalism students; a $2.5 million gift from Tom and Teresa Walsh to support a nurse navigation program at the KU Cancer Center; a $2.4 million gift from the estate of George A. Daniels to provides scholarships for undergraduate students with academic merit and financial need; and a $1 million gift from Jim Osborn to create the Kathleen M. Osborn Chair in Molecular and Integrative Physiology at KU Medical Center.

KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said the money has a big effect on KU.

For fiscal year 2015, more than 6,500 students and 190 endowed professors and faculty received support from Endowment dollars, she said. The effect is also apparent walking through campus, she said — in construction projects ranging from Capitol Federal Hall to Jayhawk Boulevard’s new landscaping.

“Private giving makes up a significant portion of our total revenue each year,” Barcomb-Peterson said. “So without the generosity of our friends and supporters, the University of Kansas would look very different.”


Growing support

Direct financial support provided by Kansas University Endowment to KU for the past five years.

2015 — $184.6 million

2014 — $124.1 million

2013 — $119.4 million

2012 — $119.3 million

2011 — $112 million

Source: KU Endowment