May 5, 1998 Contacts: Bill Sublette (804) 924-1057 Carol Wood (804) 924-6189 Architecture, Education, and Nursing Schools Match Funds in One Week SAUNDERS $1.5 MILLION GIFT SETS FAST PACE, ENDOWS NINE NEW CHAIRS The race was over in a flash. Three schools at the University of Virginia jumped out of the starting gate in an effort to match a $1.5 million gift that could conceivably endow nine professorships. To everyone's surprise, the schools made it to the finish in just over one week. Through an innovative gift arrangement, a New York family sparked the competition. "I felt like a referee who has just tossed up a jump ball, and there are three teams on the court," said Thomas A. Saunders III, who made the gift along with his wife, Jordan, and his daughter, Calvert. Known as the Saunders Challenge, the gift pools $1.5 million to be divided among the University's School of Architecture, Curry School of Education, and School of Nursing. The gift created the Saunders Professors Fund and was awarded in two stages. The first $750,000 was distributed evenly among the three schools, for which each raised a matching $250,000. This allowed each school to endow one chaired professorship at the $500,000 level. Once a school matched the first portion of the fund, the remaining $750,000 of the challenge was made available on a first-come, first-served basis, providing a powerful incentive for the schools to secure matching support. "We've introduced a sense of urgency that will encourage donors to act sooner rather than later," said Saunders, who is co-chairman of the University's $1 billion fund-raising campaign. "If they wish to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen the faculty at their school, they won't have the luxury of waiting another month or another year to make a decision." It wasn't long after announcement of the Saunders Challenge was made on April 23 that both the School of Architecture and the Curry School of Education had their first matching gifts lined up. Susan Ketron, director of development at Architecture, reported a $250,000 anonymous gift to establish a $500,000 chair in landscape architecture, while Margaret Unsworth, director of development for the education school, reported a $250,000 gift from Daniel M. Meyers of Marble Head, Mass. to establish a $500,000 chair in the economics of higher education. Linda Davies, director of development for the nursing school, was on their heels reporting a $250,000 gift from the Theresa A. Thomas Foundation in Richmond, VA. When fully matched by other donors, the Saunders Professors Fund was designed to create six to nine new chaired professorships, funded either at the $250,000 or $500,000 level. An effective tool for recruiting and retaining distinguished faculty, an endowed professorship generates income that is used to supplement the chairholder's salary. Conceivably, one of the three schools could have walked away with four to seven new endowed chairs if it outpaced its other two competitors in obtaining matching support. "This may be a unique arrangement in higher education," said University President John T. Casteen III. "The Saunders Challenge provides tremendous leverage for encouraging donors to come forward to support these schools, and I applaud Tom, Jordan and Calvert for the vision and creativity of their gift." The Saunders family selected the Architecture, Education and Nursing schools for the challenge gift because of their pressing need for endowed chairs. "Through our involvement in the campaign, we have become aware of the needs of all areas of the University," Saunders said. "This campaign is about achieving excellence, and it has to be shared across the entire University. To strengthen the University, we need to strengthen each of its schools and programs. "It's like bench depth," he added. "You don't win a championship with one great player. You win as a team." "The Saunders' gift will enable us to retain and recruit faculty whose perception and creativity ensure the quality of the school, as well as the commitment to provide the finest education possible for our students," said William H. McDonough, dean of the architecture school. Within the week, he announced three additional gifts of $125,000 each, all of which will be matched from the second tier of the Saunders Challenge and will go toward establishing three $250,000 chairs. They include: the William Stone Weedon Professorship in Asian Architecture from the Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation; a professorship for the Department of Architecture from the Elwood R. Quesada Educational Foundation; a Professorship for Sustainable Communities in the School of Architecture from the Heinz Endowments. David Breneman, dean of the Curry School, made a similar announcement, adding two additional $250,000 chairs as a result of the challenge. Achsah E. Henderson has committed $125,000 to establish the Edmund H. Henderson Professorship in memory of her husband, a long-time Curry School faculty member and director of the McGuffy Reading Center. Members of the school's campaign committee joined forces to commit $125,000 to establish an undesignated chair. MORE 3 Later in the same week, Jeanette Lancaster, dean of the School of Nursing, announced an anonymous gift of $125,000 for a $250,000 chair, effectively closing the competition and establishing the ninth new chair at the University in a little more than a week's time. Breneman sees a number of benefits in the design of the Saunders gift, among them the fact that it has increased the energy of the school's campaign and opened doors to new donors. "We value the effort that the Saunders are devoting to schools whose alumni typically are not of great wealth. The challenge helps us to attract resources that might otherwise never materialize for us." The Saunders family has been among the most generous contributors to the University's campaign. Their gifts include a $10 million trust that will finance a new executive education center at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, where Saunders earned his MBA degree in 1967. The family also contributed $3.5 million for the new Darden Grounds, whose central building has been named Saunders Hall. In addition, Calvert Saunders has made a $600,000 gift that includes a challenge to encourage other alumni, especially young graduates, to increase the unrestricted endowment for the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. She is a 1990 alumna of the College. When the challenge is fully met, the gift will provide $1 million for the University. Former chair of the Campaign for Darden and the Darden School Foundation trustees, Thomas Saunders became national co-chair of the Campaign for the University of Virginia on July 1, 1997. He is founder of Saunders Karp & Megrue, a New York-based firm that manages more than $1 billion of private equity for itself and its limited partners. He is a director of several of the firm's portfolio companies, including the Virginia-based Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. Jordan Saunders is a member of the University's Campaign Executive Committee and was chair of the committee that organized the 1995 campaign kickoff dinner on the University's historic Lawn. Also an active campaign volunteer, Calvert Saunders organized a campaign event for young alumni in New York in 1996. ### Television reporters should call the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550 U.Va. News online: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews