JMU Foundation to champion the endowment

Universities that achieve their dreams have active, vital and visible foundations advocating on their behalf.

The JMU Foundation has assumed the role of “champion of the endowment” on behalf of JMU. Warren Coleman (’79, ’81M), chair of the foundation’s development committee, made the announcement at the 2014 Annual Stewardship Luncheon on March 21. “Universities that achieve their dreams have active, vital and visible foundations advocating on their behalf,” he said.

Coleman told JMU leaders and investors attending the luncheon to expect a more visible and active partnership with the university. “In fact,” Coleman said, “we plan to help reach the $100 million endowment mark by 2019, the year of the foundation’s 50th anniversary. As of Dec. 31, the endowment was $74 million so we have high goals of increasing this by 33 percent.”

The foundation officers and board of directors plan to play a leadership role in support of private fundraising efforts and ultimately to provide an ever-growing and sustainable source of private support for JMU.

An active alumnus and athletics scholarship donor, Coleman described the importance of its new-found advocacy. “As all of us here in this room recognize, the financing of higher education has changed forever. Gone are the days when we could rely exclusively on state support. Many of today’s “mature” alums left Madison during those years when the state provided funding and thus left not realizing how important it would be for them to ‘give back or pay it forward.’”

The JMU Foundation, a 501c3 organization, was established in 1969 and is charged with raising, investing and administering charitable gifts for the benefit of JMU.