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POSTED AT 12:03 AM ON Sep. 18, 2008 

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IU officials announced Wednesday that the University received a record number of donations from private sectors this past year, nearly quadrupling the previous record, set in 2005.

IU received $408.6 million in private donations this year, a bulk of which came from organizations such as the Lilly Endowment and was an estate gift from  the Jesse H. and Beulah C. Cox scholarship.

In 2005, the University received a then-record $107.6 million in private donations.
The money will be used for IU scholarships, the Riley Children’s Foundation and research grants, according to a University statement released Wednesday.

The IU Foundation received $251.4 million, the Riley Children’s Foundation received $36.3 million and $120.9 million was given for research grants and non-governmental contracts, according to an IU press release. Nearly 40 percent of the money given to the IU Foundation will be used exclusively for scholarships.

The rest will be used to build a studio for the IU Jacobs School of Music and for the IU School of Law to hire faculty members, said Barbara Coffman, executive director for strategic planning and communication for the IU Foundation.

Some of the money from the foundation will be used for the Cox Scholars Program, which helps 300 students who excel academically but need financial support, said Gene Tempel, president of the IU Foundation.

“We are very grateful for these gifts, which are enabling us to achieve our goals of excellence in teaching and research and to ensure that the doors to an IU education will always be open to the best and brightest students with a diversity of backgrounds, regardless of their economic circumstances,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in a the press release.

The donations were collected from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, Coffman said.
The money will not all be spent in one year, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.

The money is invested and the earnings are used for the actual distribution of scholarships, MacIntyre said. In addition, IU’s Matching the Promise program matches the percentages of earnings from the money invested.

IU administration said the University has been nationally ranked in the top 20 for universities that raised the most total voluntary support for 16 of the past 18 years, according to the press release.

Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Dick McKaig attributed the fundraising success to IU’s reputation.

“(It’s) one of the factors of why students choose to enroll here,” McKaig said.
MacIntyre added the money helps IU go from “average to excellent” by bringing in faculty members that have a lot of opportunities to offer students.