College of ChemistryDepartment of ChemistryDept of Chemical Engineeringbg image
slogan
visual image

Giving Opportunities

Make a Gift to the College Now!

Your support is crucial to maintaining the College of Chemistry's preeminence.

How do I give?

Mindy Rex
Acting Assistant Dean
510.642.9506
rex@berkeley.edu
Sather Gate
This detail atop Sather Gate displays the University of California motto, "Fiat Lux" (Let There Be Light). UC Berkeley photo.

Endowed Funds

The University of California, Berkeley is consistently ranked among the world’s finest institutions of higher learning, internationally renowned for its achievements at the forefront of teaching and research.

Only with a strong public-private partnership, however, can a public university like Berkeley maintain its preeminence over the long term. And nothing is more critical to a university’s continued distinction than its endowment — a corpus of funds that the institution invests in perpetuity to provide ongoing support for its faculty, students, and programs. It is no coincidence that the nation’s top-ranked universities have the largest endowments.

Berkeley’s endowment is a collection of more than 3,000 private funds established by individuals and organizations. This endowment provides scholarships and fellowships to attract the brightest students, resources to recruit and retain the most talented faculty, and funds to support research at the leading edge of global discovery. With significant new investments and careful stewardship, Berkeley’s endowment will sustain our world-class standing far into the future.

What is Endowment, and What Does it Support?

hewlett button

An endowment supports students, faculty, and programs in perpetuity. The principal of the gift is invested, and a portion of the return is used each year to support the school, college, or program designated by the donor. The remainder of the return is reinvested so that the endowment will grow and keep pace with inflation. The campus can receive gifts paid either to The UC Regents or the UC Berkeley Foundation. Both are classified as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, so gifts to either are tax-deductible.

Depending on the donor’s designation, endowments may be established for a wide variety of purposes. Among the most useful endowments are those providing unrestricted support to the dean or departmental chairs. Other designations include undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty chairs, program support, and research. Gifts of endowment of $50,000 or more may be named for the donor or someone the donor wishes to honor or memorialize.

A Gift in Perpetuity

With funds invested prudently and in perpetuity, the University’s endowment provides a reliable, long-term financial resource that can be used to attract and retain world-renowned scholars, launch groundbreaking research endeavors, and make it possible for the most promising students to attend Berkeley, regardless of their financial means. Through careful investment and new gifts, the endowment provides a solid foundation for academic excellence. A contribution to Berkeley’s endowment is an enduring gift to future generations.

We invite you to contact the College of Chemistry for further information about creating an endowment.

Named Endowed Faculty Funds
$5M+ Chancellor’s Endowed Chair
$3M+ Distinguished Endowed Chair (Hewlett Challenge match)
$2M+ Endowed Chair (Hewlett Challenge match)
$1M+ Endowed Professorship
$500K+ Faculty Excellence Fund

Named Graduate Fellowships
$500K+ Berkeley Graduate Fellowship

Named Undergraduate Scholarships
$250K+ Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship
$50K+ Undergraduate Scholarship

Named Endowed General Funds
$50K+ Endowed Fund

Memorial Funds

Memorial Funds help perpetuate the memory and values of someone who is deceased. Honorary funds pay tribute to someone during his or her lifetime. Both kinds of funds honor individuals while benefiting the college and the departments of chemistry and/or chemical engineering. These funds may be for unrestricted use or for a specific purpose (e.g., fellowship, undergraduate research, etc).

Memorial funds that have been established in the College include those honoring:
Samuel Abrahams
Eric Abramson
Leo A. Berti
Donald Blakely
Bud Blue
Gary E. Brodale
Benjamin Boussert
Charles J. Busso
Melvin Calvin
Cynthia Ann Chan
William Dauben
Shirley DeBuhr
A. B. Falcone
Irving Fatt
William D. Gwinn
Heinz Heinemann
Joel Hildebrand
Bruce Howard
Frederick "Fritz" Jensen
Margaret Jorgenson
G. N. Lewis
Dan Luca
Bruce Mahan
Kristin Malmquist
Earl Muetterties
Eugene E. Petersen
George Pimentel
Kenneth S. Pitzer
William H. and Mary Rees
Samuel Ruben
Erich O. and Elly Saegebarth
Glenn T. Seaborg
Mitchel Shen
Vincent James Starr
Stanley G. Thompson
Charles Wilke
Theodore Vermeulen

Donations may also be made to the annual fund in memory or in honor of an individual, and the college will notify the family that a gift has been made.

Matching Gifts

Hundreds of companies match their employees’ (and sometimes retirees’) contributions on a 1:1, 2:1 or even 3:1 basis. If your company has such a policy, forms to assure that your gift will be matched can be obtained from your personnel or employee relations office. Matching gifts are added to your individual gift in determining the donor club to which you belong.

[top of page]