 For over 70 years, the University of Georgia Foundation has operated for the sole purpose of improving the quality of academics at the University of Georgia and to ensure that the best and brightest students from throughout Georgia and the nation have the financial means to take advantage of all the university has to offer.
From its humble beginnings in 1937, the foundation today has amassed more than $676 million in assets, $505 million of which is endowed for academic and faculty support. The foundation hands out a wide range of scholarships each year to deserving students and endows chairs and professorships that ensure those students receive the highest-quality instruction possible.
With each new generation of students who benefit from the work of the foundation comes the hope that these students will leave the university better than what it was when they arrived.
Timeline
The growth of the University of Georgia Foundation has mirrored the expansion and success of the university itself over the years:
1937: Foundation was founded by a group of alumni who were concerned about the academic quality of their alma mater. It allowed the University of Georgia, for the first time in its history, to raise private funds in an organized way that would be used for scholarships and to attract top-quality instructors to campus.
1945: Assets approached $250,000 and the foundation made its first grant – a $600 supplement for the salary of history Professor E. Merton Coulter.
1950s: Foundation provided a $10,000 grant to ward off a raid on promising faculty and to raise salaries to attract better candidates. Part of the grant also was used to help create a microfilm file of Georgia newspapers in the university library. A few years later, another $10,000 grant was approved for the naming of the first eight "Foundation Professors."
1966: A National Merit Scholars Program underwritten by the foundation made 15 awards to Georgia finalists. During the next 10 years, the program grew to one of the nation’s largest.
1971: Foundation began to create a series of “super scholarships” which resulted in the Foundation Fellows Program, patterned after the Morehead Scholarships of North Carolina.
1972: The University of Georgia hired staff to support the fundraising efforts of the foundation.
1980s – 1990s: Several organized fundraising drives, combined to raise more than $240 million.
2000 – 2007: The foundation continues as a primary source of funding for scholarships, endowed chairs, professorships and other academic endeavors at the University of Georgia. The foundation’s investment committee has posted a return on investment in excess of 10% per year for more than a decade, placing it among the top performing college foundations nationwide and well ahead of all major market indexes.
Today: The University of Georgia Foundation is independent of the university, operating in a cooperative spirit with the University of Georgia under terms of a shared services agreement. | 
