Philanthropy plays a key role in supporting President Jim Ryan’s strategic plan to make UVA the best public university by 2030 and one of the best universities anywhere, public or private, which requires substantial resources to enable ambitions to become reality.

The Honor the Future campaign has generated extraordinary support for the initiatives and goals in “Great and Good: The 2030 Plan,” raising more than $4.4 billion in private philanthropy to date. This is the most significant philanthropic success in the University’s history.

“Through the Honor the Future campaign, generous commitments from our community are advancing the 2030 strategic plan and helping us continue our academic and health care missions,” Ryan said. “The University’s fundraising successes indicate a high level of commitment and devotion among our community that is essential to making our goals a reality. I’m incredibly grateful for the investment in UVA’s future.”

The campaign has enhanced UVA’s vibrant community, its culture of service, and the collaborative curiosity of its faculty and students. From hundreds of endowed scholarships and professorships to a new School of Data Science, from an institute for the study of democracy to promising research in specific diseases, the campaign gives essential momentum to the University’s strategic ambitions. On the following pages are a select few of the many initiatives benefitting from campaign support so far.

for students

Scholarships, fellowships, and professorships funded by David (Engr ’61, Darden ’64) and the late Jane Walentas, including support for first-generation Jefferson Scholars who achieve academic excellence while demonstrating leadership potential and resilience.

Endowed scholarships for students transferring from Piedmont Virginia Community College, those from underserved and underrepresented communities, students from Southwest Virginia, and those from middle-income families.

Scholarships for medical students from diverse backgrounds, graduate students pursuing public service in the School of Law, and future educators studying at the School of Education and Human Development.

for faculty

Funded by the family of Thomas A. Saunders III (Darden ’63), inaugural University Professorships will attract and retain internationally recognized faculty in science and medicine.

Through the John L. Nau III Foundation, John Nau (Col ’68) made gifts to support teaching and learning in the field of democracy, including Nau fellowships, internships, and professorships in the College of Arts & Sciences. He also made a leadership gift to the Karsh Institute of Democracy.

for research

The Harrison Family Foundation supported the UVA Brain Institute’s new Virginia Alzheimer’s Disease Center Data Commons, which will enable data sharing among researchers in multiple disciplines, offering potential for advances in the search for treatments for Alzheimer’s.

Gifts also created the Translational Orphan Blood Cancer Research Initiative Fund.

The Manning Family Foundation’s generosity includes support for research in autoimmune Type 1 diabetes and scientific exploration of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, along with a historic gift to create the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology.

Gifts from Joanne and Bill Conway to the School of Nursing will expand enrollment and help address workforce shortages nationally.

Private support for research focused on the marine environment will attract further funding from foundations keen to support solutions to the challenges of a warming climate.

for community

Bruce (Law ’80) and Martha Lubin Karsh (Col ’78, Law ’81) made a lead gift to create the Karsh Institute of Democracy, a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary institute that highlights the critical role of higher education in preserving and strengthening democracy.

The momentum created by UVA’s strategic plan also drove philanthropic gifts to create courses focused on economic solutions for Appalachia, support an ongoing cohort of exceptional students with financial need studying engineering, and foster interdisciplinary research in cybersecurity.

Gifts to provide fellowships at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and at the School of Law will support students committed to careers in public service.

UVA’s culture of service is epitomized by the Humayun Kahn Memorial Scholarship, created as one of the campaign’s Bicentennial Scholarships to remember U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Kahn (Col ’00), a graduate of the University’s ROTC Program who was killed
in Iraq.

Paid internships, funded by UVA benefactors during the COVID-19 pandemic, created the 22nd Century Scholars initiative, a virtual internship program launched by the Center for Politics, which placed more than 50 undergraduate interns at the Center for Politics, the Miller Center, the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, the Batten School, and the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Deliberative Media Lab.