An Opportunity to Broaden Community Partnership and Engagement
Southwestern Medical Foundation’s matching gift challenge amplifies giving to Campaign for the Brain
Several Southwestern Medical Foundation Trustees have helped to enable tremendous progress through their participation in the Campaign for the Brain Steering Committee, chaired by Robert B. “Bob” Rowling, immediate Past Chair of Southwestern Medical Foundation. In 2015, during the celebration of the Foundation’s 75th Anniversary, the Foundation presented a gift of $7.5 million to support the Campaign.
Campaign leaders anticipated moving from a quiet phase to a public phase in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Steering Committee recognized the need to pause the decision to go public in light of the issues and challenges facing our community.
In 2021, the Foundation met with Trustees to discuss priorities for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute – realizing that a matching gift challenge would be important to broadening support from additional donors to close the gaps not yet funded.
Trustees were receptive to the needs of UT Southwestern and enthusiastically approved using both the $7.5 million original campaign gift plus an additional $5 million gift for matching funds to encourage an additional $12.5 million in donor participation and gifts to complete the campaign. These collective gifts will add $25 million in value and move the community closer to meeting the important needs of the O’Donnell Brain Institute.
When the late Peter and Edith O’Donnell launched the bold and worthy vision of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute in 2015, numerous other leaders were eager to join this new wave of generosity and assure that the O’Donnell Brain Institute’s mission would become a reality.
We are deeply moved by our community’s strategic investments in our future.
“During the Campaign for the Brain, donors have been helping to bring tremendous talent to Dallas,” said James R. Huffines, Chairman of Southwestern Medical Foundation. “It is very moving to see what is being accomplished already by new collaborations, facilities, and technologies at work and as part of the O’Donnell Brain Institute. Peter challenged us to tackle this next frontier in medicine, and we are proud of the way UT Southwestern continues to step up to every new challenge our community faces.”
“This matching challenge, which we hope will create a total impact of $25 million, has been met with generous participation from the Foundation’s Board of Trustees,” said Kathleen M. Gibson, President and CEO of Southwestern Medical Foundation. “We are deeply moved by our community’s strategic investments in our future and the leaders who so generously inspire the excellence we see today at UT Southwestern.”
Southwestern Medical Foundation serves as a sustainable funding source for a significant number of leading programs in research, education, and patient care at UT Southwestern.
