{"id":30743,"date":"2024-03-25T15:55:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T19:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30743"},"modified":"2024-03-26T21:37:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T01:37:38","slug":"clearly-furman-raises-68-5-million-for-student-athlete-scholarships-facilities-and-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/clearly-furman-raises-68-5-million-for-student-athlete-scholarships-facilities-and-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearly Furman raises $68.5 million for student-athlete scholarships, facilities, and operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furman University friends and alumni have stepped up in major ways recently to support Paladin Athletics. Their gifts are part of the $392 million raised to date toward the overall goal of $426 million by 2026 through Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through the campaign, Furman Athletics<\/a> has raised $68.5 million with emphasis on student-athlete scholarships, while also funding coaching endowments, operational needs, international trips and capital projects. Capital projects funded include, but are not limited to, a weight room renovation to benefit all sports, the new Davis & Faxon Training Facility<\/a> at the REK Complex<\/a> and renovations to the REK Center benefitting men\u2019s and women\u2019s golf, upgrades to men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball offices, locker rooms and film rooms, enhancements to Alley Gym for volleyball, upgrades to the men\u2019s and women\u2019s tennis facilities and a renovation to Timmons Arena<\/a>, which was announced in February 2023.<\/p>\n

This campaign specifically targets endowment growth as its top objective as the university works to ensure the long-term financial health of Athletics and other institutional programs, including Furman\u2019s 18 Division I sports.<\/strong> Endowing scholarships is imperative to ensuring that Furman\u2019s 18 sports remain elite and nationally relevant now and for years to come.\u00a0Each scholarship that is endowed is funded in perpetuity, which paves the way for Furman Athletics and the University to remain financially healthy for years to come.<\/p>\n

“Our top campaign priority, scholarship endowment, represents an investment in future scholars, competitors, contributors to the global society and individuals of integrity. It is a commitment that will provide an example of philanthropic leadership for Furman University, Furman Athletics and beyond,\u201d said Jason Donnelly, vice president for Intercollegiate Athletics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So far, donors to The Clearly Furman campaign have contributed $10.5 million to endow new athletic scholarships. The sports most impacted by this support include cross country\/track and field, men\u2019s golf, women\u2019s golf, men\u2019s tennis, soccer, volleyball and football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so grateful for our donors\u2019 commitment to endowment and share their desire to build a funding source that will ensure a strong future for Furman Athletics,\u201d said Erin Wissing, executive senior associate athletics director for Development and Alumni Relations. \u201cThis strategy requires endurance and belief in a long-term vision, and I am very proud of our Furman Athletics Fund team and our coaches for all they are doing to partner with our incredible donors to move us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golf is one sport where Clearly Furman is making a difference, and there is still work to be done. The endowment for the women\u2019s golf team funds just more than two of the program\u2019s six scholarships, meaning funding for the remaining scholarships comes from the department\u2019s budget each year. The university has a goal of raising $3.77 million to fully endow the remaining scholarships. Cindy Davis ’84, a Furman trustee, is leading the charge to ensure women\u2019s golf sets the standard.<\/p>\n

By NCAA rules, men’s golf is permitted to award a maximum of four-and-a-half scholarships. However, Furman\u2019s program has been operating below that threshold as it has worked to fund and award all men\u2019s golf scholarships through endowment. As a result of successful fundraising, four men\u2019s golf scholarships will be endowed and awarded by the end of 2025, and the NCAA maximum will be endowed and awarded by 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a current coach and golf alumnus, I am so incredibly thankful for the generosity and support of our alumni base, friends and family who made this possible,” said Matt Davidson, the men’s golf team coach. \u201cTo be able to endow all four-and-a-half NCAA scholarships by 2026 ensures both the long-term stability of our program well into the future and greatly affects our current ability to be nationally competitive and to take our program to new heights. It was really an amazing effort by so many people, and we are grateful for all the support and so excited about the future of Furman Golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clearly Furman campaign runs through 2026, Furman\u2019s bicentennial. Erin Wissing said she is energized about the philanthropic possibilities ahead. \u201cThere is still a tremendous need and many opportunities for donors to impact our trajectory through their giving. The generosity of the Furman faithful will be a distinguishing factor for Athletics as Furman enters its third century.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can I contribute?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donors can either fund scholarships annually with gifts to the Paladin Scholarship Fund<\/a> or to the general endowments of each of the 18 sports, or they can make a larger impact by establishing a named endowed fund that will provide resources in perpetuity. Multi-year commitments \u2013 whether to annual scholarship funds or to endowment \u2013 make the greatest impact and allow Furman to plan and anticipate scholarship needs. An endowed scholarship for Athletics may be established with a multi-year commitment of $100,000 or more. A donor’s gift is invested in Furman\u2019s endowment to provide a scholarship in perpetuity based on the earnings growth. An endowed fund provides scholarships to strengthen a program\u2019s offerings today and solidify support for future student-athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gifts to Athletics are part of the $392 million raised to date toward the overall goal of $426 million by 2026 through Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":30745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,1922],"tags":[220,1975,1443,295,2653],"class_list":["post-30743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-clearly-furman","tag-athletics","tag-clearly-furman","tag-endowment","tag-golf","tag-scholarships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}