Annual Giving

Annual gifts support student scholarships and provide important operating funds. Your gifts assure continued excellent academic programs, and allow prompt response to urgent needs and new initiatives. The annual giving program is made up of thousands of operating gifts from loyal alumni, friends, parents, students, faculty/staff, and corporations and foundations. Annual giving also includes contributions for matching and tribute gifts, and gifts that support the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a national treasure that serves creative people in the second half of life.

Your annual gifts are mostly unrestricted. Unrestricted gifts are funds that you trust the University leadership to distribute to priority areas. These areas include the ability to respond quickly to critical needs and unusual opportunities that enrich the University. A case in point—for the past three years the UNC Asheville Chamber Singers have been invited to perform during the holiday season at the White House, a great honor. The group’s trip was funded, in part, with unrestricted gifts.

Unrestricted gifts go into the Chancellor’s Excellence Fund, and the Chancellor consults with faculty, staff, and student leadership to identify priority needs for these gifts.

The top priorities for these contributions usually include:

• Providing need-based and merit scholarships for deserving students
• Supporting innovation in the classroom and laboratory
• Continuing to inspire faculty to advance research and strengthen their commitment to teaching
• Engaging current and potential students to embrace world views and serve their community

Your thoughtful gift joins with those of hundreds of other people giving what they can to help UNC Asheville cover costs not met by tuition or state funding. In fact, as one annual gift donor put it, it’s hard to imagine a University this vital without this kind of support.

Have a question or concern? We want to help. Please call Sophia Ungert at 828.251.6525, or email sungert@unca.edu.