Building on a tradition of unrestricted support for the University of Washington, Microsoft Corporation has pledged a minimum of $500,000 to create the Microsoft Endowment for Excellence.
Income from the endowment can be used by the President of the University to support any educational or program need at the UW. The endowment is expected to grow to more than $1 million by the end of the decade through additional contributions from Microsoft.
Microsoft has been one of the major donors of unrestricted dollars to the UW. Since 1987, the company has contributed more than $650,000 to the President’s Fund for Excellence, an unrestricted fund used for merit scholarships, graduate fellowships, teaching and public service awards and other purposes.
According to Microsoft Director of Corporate Affairs Kimberly Ellwanger, “Microsoft typically makes its direct corporate gifts to organizations for operating or discretionary use, so the recipient organization may make optimal use of the gift. We support organizations we believe in, and we think they know best how to use these gifts.”
“We are grateful to Microsoft for recognizing how precious unrestricted dollars are to the University and responding so generously,” said UW President William P. Gerberding. “This endowment recognizes the important contributions that research and teaching done at the University make to high technology industries and companies such as Microsoft.”
In 1992, as part of the Campaign for Washington, Microsoft committed $1 million for endowed support of faculty and students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.