Steven Leath
Iowa State University received a huge donation to its ongoing fundraising campaign today.
University President Steven Leath announced the gift to the ISU Foundation. “We have received a gift of an equity stake representing majority ownership in Curriculum Associates — which is an education company headquartered in Massachusetts,” Leath says. ” The gift is currently valued at approximately 93 million dollars — making it one of the largest gifts in the history of this university.”
The gift will be used to create a permanent endowed fund to the school’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Since the College of Liberals Arts and Sciences provides core curriculum for students in every major and every program, this gift will impact virtually every student at Iowa State and every student that comes in the future,” Leath says.
The donors are a husband and wife who graduated from Iowa State.”They ask that their names be kept confidential, so we will respect their wishes. We’d love to give them credit, but we will respect their wishes,” according to Leath. “On behalf of everyone at Iowa State I want to say how grateful we as a university — as an Iowa State community — are to these folks for their gift. There really aren’t words to express the appreciation we have for this very special couple and their generosity.”
The contribution will go toward eight-year fundraising campaign called “Forever True, For Iowa State,” which is named after the words to the school’s fight song. “It will support generations to come of innovators, creators, communicators and problem solvers, who will go out and do great things in this world,” Leath says. “Never before have Iowa State’s unique strengths been so relevant in addressing problems in this complex world. And never before has philanthropy been so important and such a powerful tool in making a difference and enabling us to reach those goals.”
The ISU campaign seeks to raise $1.1 billion for the university by July 2020. The final valuation of this gift will depend on market considerations at the time the sale of the equity occurs.