As part of the Weitzman School’s renewed commitment to recruiting top students and scholars, the School is matching leadership gifts to support student fellowships (scholarships at the graduate school level) and endowed faculty positions.
“While the Weitzman School will remain forever competitive in financial aid offerings, in order to be dominant in the field, we must continue to fundraise and increase our endowment funds for both fellowships and professorships,” said Fritz Steiner, Dean and Paley Professor.
Donors can help support an increasingly diverse body of students with gifts to endowed fellowships matched by the Weitzman School. The school is offering a tiered matching program:
Donor Amount
Weitzman School Match
Total Gift
$75,000
$25,000
$100,000
$200,000
$50,000
$250,000
$400,000
$100,000
$500,000
$850,000
$150,000
$1,000,000
Endowed funds last in perpetuity, so that donors’ support will continue to help the School increase student aid well into the future. Endowment gifts are added to the Weitzman School’s overall endowment and are invested by Penn with a target payout of 5% of the total gift, with future allocations based on the University’s spending rule. Donors may establish endowed funds to be named after themselves or in another person’s honor, or they may add to an already existing endowed fellowship fund.
The Weitzman School is also aiming to increase the number of permanent faculty positions and center directorships that are funded through endowments, and donor support for those positions will be extended by gifts from the Weitzman School through the following tiered matching program:
Giving Opportunity
Donor Amount
Weitzman School Match
Total Gift
Full professor
$2,250,000
$750,000
$3,000,000
Assistant professor, presidential professor, professor of practice, center director
$1,000,000
$500,000
$1,500,000
Penn has had matching programs to support students and professors in the past, and last summer, the Weitzman School announced two new named professorships endowed through the university’s Presidential Professorship matching program. Fine Arts Chair Ken Lum was appointed to the Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential Professorship and City and Regional Planning Chair Lisa Servon was named Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor.
To receive the Weitzman match for either an endowed fellowship or professorship, a donor must make a commitment before June 30, 2021, and payments towards the commitment can be made over a five-year period.
“This is the first time that our School has been able to offer such an opportunity,” Steiner said. “With the end of the Lead by Design campaign in sight, now is the time to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity. I hope individuals who have been thinking about making an impact at our School will do so now.”
For more information about the Weitzman Match, please contact Jeff Snyder, assistant dean for development and alumni relations, at 215.898.8738 or jsnyder2@design.upenn.edu or visit leadbydesign.org.
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