Funding Priorities

The School of Medicine has many needs that can be addressed by philanthropy at different levels of support.

Unrestricted Gifts
Unrestricted gifts are directed to the Annual Fund, the medical school’s only source of flexible current-year funds. Generally, all gifts below $10,000 serve the medical school best in the Annual Fund.

Restricted Gifts
Restricted gifts may be directed to any existing fund at the MCV Foundation for the benefit of a particular specialty or program to support the donor’s personal interest.

Endowed Gifts
A minimum pledge of $25,000 establishes an endowed named fund, a permanent, self-sustaining source of funding. Endowment assets are invested for long-term growth. Each year, a portion of the value is paid out to support the fund’s purpose, and any earnings in excess of this distribution are used to build the fund’s market value.

In this way, an endowment fund can grow and provide support for its designated purpose in perpetuity. The MCV Foundation has an endowed management policy that seeks to balance present needs with the desire to meet the future’s rising costs, which is achieved by reinvesting some of today’s earnings so that a larger principal will be available each year to generate more income.

The School of Medicine Annual Fund: Everyday Impact

The Annual Fund combines gifts of all sizes to create scholarships for deserving medical students.

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The Annual Fund is used to meet the School of Medicine's most pressing need: reducing the amount of debt medical students carry into residency and their careers. Gifts of all sizes combine and 100 percent of the fund is used to create Aesculapian Scholarships, which are used to recruit top incoming students as well as to reward current students who demonstrate outstanding merit. Annual Fund scholarships are awarded the following academic year, making a direct impact on our students.

Limiting tuition increases and increasing financial aid are important parts of the Dean's strategy to make a medical education more affordable for our students. Show your support of the school by making an annual gift.

• Make a Gift Online

If you would like to talk with someone about the Annual Fund, contact:

Jack Carmichael 
Phone: 804-827-4931 or 800-332-8813
Email: jack.carmichael@vcuhealth.org

Scholarships

Scholarships continue to be a high-priority need for the medical school.

Privately endowed scholarships at the medical school are a combination of need-based and merit-based awards. When each fund was established, donors outlined the criteria used to select the student recipients. Some scholarships support students considering a certain specialty or from a particular geographic region. Others reward those who have distinguished themselves through community service or academic merit.

The medical school's financial aid office keeps students informed of all scholarship and loan opportunities and provides counseling to students on debt management. The School of Medicine Scholarship Committee is responsible for making the awards of both need- and merit-based scholarships. The committee also works with the School of Medicine Admissions Committee to award the various recruitment scholarships.

1838 Campaign Impact

The 1838 Campaign raised $27 million for endowed scholarships and resulted in 128 new or expanded scholarships.

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Education debt is a heavy burden for medical students nationwide. The 1838 Campaign — where every gift is used to create medical student scholarships — is helping to reduce student debt, reward student excellence and recruit top students who will thrive on the MCV Campus.

The 1838 Campaign:

• Surpassed the campaign's $25 million goal
• Created 78 new endowed scholarships
• Expanded 50 existing scholarships through new gifts
• Increased the number of full-tuition scholarships to 13, compared to one at the start of the campaign. An additional 11 students receive half-tuition scholarships.
• Grew the average scholarship award by $3,000. The average size of scholarship support per recipient today is $9,754. At the start of the campaign, the average size was $6,840.

Named Professorships and Chairs

Endowed professorships and chairs are crucial to the task of attracting and retaining an exceptional faculty.

They are powerful fuel for the overall mission of the academic medical center. Such support has the ability to attract renowned teachers and clinicians and augment the research of a top scientist.

The number of endowed professorships speaks to the financial strength of an institution. For the department designated the recipient of such special support, increased prestige and financial stability are but two of the rewards.

Support for Research

Recent biomedical discoveries have opened doors to unprecedented promise for medical research and human health.

[View Image]In the School of Medicine, we’ve seen advances in the understanding of schizophrenia and in cardiac preconditioning that could lead to better treatments and improved lives. Research studies in liver transplantation and radiation oncology have already delivered findings that have changed the way we approach disease.

In addition to promoting better patient care, these research endeavors provide our students the chance to preview the future of medicine as they study with faculty who are generating tomorrow’s advances in today’s clinics and laboratories.

Department Fundraising

The Med-Health Development Office and the MCV Foundation assist the school’s departments in building relationships with their house officer alumni and grateful patients. In recent years, departments and divisions of the medical school have benefited from the generosity of their alumni and patients, many of whom have supported research funds, lectureships, fellowships and professorships.

If you are interested in supporting the work of a particular department or division of the medical school, or you would like more information about the fundraising efforts or staff dedicated to a particular department or division, please contact the Med-Health Development Office at 804-828-4800 or 800-332-8813.