To remain competitive and to continue offering great value to society, universities continually seek private support. Fund-raising and other efforts across the university strengthen programs, support faculty, provide undergraduate and graduate scholarships, and enable cutting-edge research.
Universities periodically enter into comprehensive campaigns to focus these efforts on achieving a common objective. Comprehensive campaigns rally around a university-wide mission or set of objectives aimed at moving the institution and all of its many units forward in a significant, strategic direction. Comprehensive campaigns typically last for a limited time, have a clear case defining their goals, and use specific measures to evaluate their success. During this time, a large community of volunteers, faculty, and staff engages in the work of the campaign. Successful comprehensive campaigns often create significant leaps in a university’s stature in many areas.
Walter M. “Sonny” Deriso Jr., a 1968 Emory College graduate and a 1972 Emory Law graduate, chairs Campaign Emory. Elected as an alumni trustee in 2002, he is the chairman of Atlantic Capital Bank in Atlanta. While at Emory College, Deriso was president of the Student Government Association, a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa and DVS Honor Societies, and a recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Service Award.
After graduation, he went on active duty in the Army Reserve, then entered Emory Law. He moved to Albany, Georgia, to practice law and continued in his practice until 1991, when he became president of Security Bank and Trust Company of Albany, a Synovus bank. In 1997, Deriso became vice chairman of the board of Synovus. He founded Atlantic Capital Bank in 2007. In his role as chairman of Campaign Emory, he leads a five-person volunteer cabinet, which guides the campaign and all volunteer activity in each of Emory’s colleges, schools, and units.
Money raised through the campaign funds the priorities of Emory’s strategic plan, “Where Courageous Inquiry Leads.” The key themes and initiatives of the strategic plan are to strengthen faculty distinction; prepare students to be engaged scholars who use their knowledge and experiences to help others; create community and engage society through efforts in leadership development, diversity, sustainability, and work-life enhancement; understand religions and the human spirit; confront issues of race and difference; improve global health; and explore new frontiers in science and technology, including neuroscience, predictive health, and computational and life sciences.
Funds support endowments for students, faculty, and programs; student scholarship programs in multiple units and financial aid programs such as Emory Advantage; faculty research and endowed positions; clinical and outreach programs; and new programmatic and building projects that will allow Emory to continue advancing as one of the world’s top universities. Campaign Emory funding priorities affect all of Emory’s schools and units and allow each academic unit to implement its own strategic plan as an integral part of the university-wide plan.
Anyone with an interest in Emory and its ability to create positive change in the world— from leaders of big corporations to Emory students—has an opportunity to support the campaign. Donors include alumni, patients, business leaders, faculty, staff, students and their parents, corporations, and private foundations. Because Emory’s vast programs affect so many people around the globe, the potential for private investment in Emory is unlimited.
The time is now for Emory. Few other organizations can have the broad, comprehensive impact of a major research university. From educating the next generation of leaders to discovering cures for disease, from understanding what it means to be human to interpreting history in an effort to inform the future, Emory’s donors have a unique opportunity to see their gifts at work.
Emory has achieved success in fund-raising over the years, and the University has been a good steward of those investments. In particular, Robert W. Woodruff—and after his death, his foundation—provided major support that has helped take Emory from its small beginnings to its current status as a leader in education, research, patient care, and community service.
With this success comes the responsibility to do more, to bring even greater intellectual resources to bear on the world’s toughest problems. As a response to this call for action, nearly 1,000 Emory faculty, staff, alumni, and students worked for 18 months to create a detailed, university-wide strategic plan to transform the world through teaching, research, scholarship, health care, and social action. The campaign provides critical funding to implement the initiatives of the strategic plan, to build strength in schools and units, and to advance the overall university.
Endowed gifts to Emory ensure support for today while providing educational and research excellence and innovation far into the future. Endowed gifts are invested. A portion of the investment earnings is spent, while the original gifts are preserved as principal. In this way, endowed gifts have far greater earning power: A one-time gift lasts forever. Emory’s overall endowment supports education and research, financial aid, facilities, and the latest technology. With a strong endowment, Emory can recruit the best faculty, researchers, health care professionals, and students; keep up with new knowledge and develop new ways to share it; and attract the most visionary leaders.
As Emory’s schools and units expand and as faculty and students continue to excel in scholarship and research, the University’s capital and operating budgets must meet the costs of innovation. Through the generosity of alumni and friends, the Emory endowment exceeds $6 billion. In fact, Emory once was ranked among the top 10 universities in the United States in endowment. Strengthening the overall Emory endowment today is more important than ever. To compete with our peers for students and faculty, to continue to excel, and to meet the goals of Emory’s new strategic plan, we must re-emphasize the critical need for endowments to support students, faculty, and new initiatives.
The advance phase of Campaign Emory began in September 2005. Emory’s academic leadership, faculty, volunteers, and development staff members have been securing leadership gifts that provide the foundation for the overall success of the campaign. These leadership gifts focus on support from trustees, key volunteers, and the University’s most generous and engaged donors. The public kickoff was held September 25, 2008, a gala in Atlanta to publicize Campaign Emory’s objectives, announce the campaign goal, and report on the success achieved during the advance phase.
As of October 31, 2009, Emory has raised more than $989 million in gifts and pledges from alumni, friends, faculty, staff, patients, students, parents, and organizations.
All gifts to Emory are part of the campaign, and everyone’s participation is needed. Whether you support the annual fund, include Emory in your will, or name a building, your gift to Emory matters. The Emory campaign is for everyone, and participation at every giving level is important and highly valued.
Gifts can be made through transfers of assets including cash, stock, real estate, and other marketable securities. For details, click here.
