Welcome to Fundraising Friday: AB Today's weekly digest of recent developments in development.
The University of Central Florida's Board of Trustees has approved the naming of its proposed football operations building as the Taylor A. Gerring Football Center, based on a $5.5 million financial gift from the 2005 UCF graduate, pioneer in blockchain technology and co-founder of Ethereum Foundation. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, the gift is the largest single cash pledge given to the athletics department and is part of the Big 12 Conference newcomer's Mission XII fundraising initiative.
Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Ill., on Tuesday accepted a $2 million donation from a late student's charitable fund. The Stacy Ann Baker Charitable Fund contributed the money to "facilitate and enhance the educational and athletic opportunities" for student-athletes at the school, according to a school news release cited by Patch.com. The money will be used to modernize the girls' varsity softball field at the school's South Campus in Western Springs, with the venue to be named Baker Field.
The University of Mississippi baseball team's home dugout now has a name — Evelyn and Jeff Johnson Dugout — thanks to the couple's $1 million in gifts as part of CHAMPIONS. NOW., the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation‘s campaign to improve facilities for student-athletes, according to a university annoucement cited by The Local Voice.
John Martin, a four-year starting offensive lineman on the Western Carolina University football team in the late 1980s, is making gifts and pledges totaling $150,000 to help improve athletics facilities at his alma mater, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business law in 1990. Martin, who now serves as principal adviser with the CAPTRUST financial advisory firm in Raleigh, N.C., is a current member of the WCU Foundation Board of Directors and past member of the Board of Visitors, according to an announcement on the Catamounts website.
Total amount of these gifts:
$8,650,000
