Endowed Funds

Named endowment funds offer a meaningful opportunity to convey your most deeply held values. Such funds may be named to honor or memorialize one's own life, a family or a very special person such as a beloved professor.

Endowment funds are perpetual. The assets are invested and managed by the UNC Asheville Foundation, Inc. to protect and gradually add value over time while using the net income to support the specified programs.    

Endowed Scholarships
"The ultimate aim of the university is to provide students the best possible opportunity to acquire the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to pursue their goals, to find meaning in their lives, and to take their places as contributing citizens of a changing society."  (Excerpt from the Mission of the University, adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1990 and reaffirmed in 2000).

Though the tuition and costs of UNC Asheville are modest, many students require financial assistance. (Estimated costs for tuition and fees for in-state students in 2007 - 08 is $4,034.)  Endowed scholarship funds provide an ongoing stream of income to grant scholarship awards year after year-improving lives, improving communities. Scholarships may be established for merit or need.  They may be directed to a particular department or geographical area or left unrestricted.

Special Program Endowments
Special program endowments provide unique opportunities for individuals to effect educational excellence. Lectureships, professorships, chairs, faculty development funds, travel-study funds and departmental awards are examples. Though special-purpose endowments must be crafted with guidance to ensure that they are in keeping with the mission and priorities of the university, they offer a meaningful opportunity for donors to bring about changes and create opportunities.

To Designate or Not to Designate?
When creating an endowment the donor makes the personal decision whether to designate his or her fund for a specific purpose or to leave it unrestricted for the general charitable purposes of the university.  Undesignated endowments provide maximum flexibility for changing times.  The income from such funds may be used to provide scholarships, technology, faculty development, study travel for students, or other priorities or needs. They may support future needs we cannot begin to foresee.  For example, twenty years ago who would have known of our current need for "smart classrooms"?

How to Establish Endowed Funds 
Current endowments may be established with outright gifts of cash or other assets, such as stock (publicly traded or closely held) or saleable real estate.

Once an endowment fund is established donors may choose to make additional gifts to it or encourage friends or family members to do likewise. Donors may also add to fund through their wills or other planned gifts.

Endowments Through Planned Gifts
Future endowments can be donated through bequests or other planned gifts such as charitable remainder trusts or charitable gift annuities.

The Pisgah Society
Those who establish endowed funds are welcomed into membership in the Pisgah Society. To learn more about establishing an endowment fund, call Jim Brewer at 828.232.2285.

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