Annual FundWhat is the Annual Fund?
So What Is The Annual Fund and Why Is It Important?
For 30 years, the Annual Fund has been making memorable Morehouse School of Medicine moments possible for bright, talented scholars, research scientists, and community service workers. Loyal Morehouse School of Medicine alumni, parents, and friends contribute to the Annual Fund each year, helping meet the School's ongoing need for flexible, unrestricted income to support our academic missions. As unrestricted gifts, these contributions are used on a daily basis where the needs and opportunities are greatest.
Last year alone, our Annual Fund donors provided over $194,000 in vital support that helped the School:
- Attract and maintain world-class faculty in each department.
- Continue its commitment to need-based financial aid to meet each student's demonstrated need.
- Renovate our classrooms and laboratories- and equip them with the necessary tools and supplies- to maximize our students' learning experience.
- Keep the lights in the classroom glowing, the heat pumping, and meet many other essential needs that make the Morehouse School of Medicine experience possible.
Annual Fund Giving Opportunities:
Current Annual Fund giving opportunities to raise unrestricted and scholarship support are the Brick campaign and the MSM Faculty/Staff Campaign.
BRICK CAMPAIGN - PATHWAY TO GOOD HEALTH CAMPAIGN
On the grounds of the National Center for Primary Care is the Pathway to Good Health—an area beautifully landscaped with plants, a fountain, and personalized engraved bricks. The bricks were donated by faculty, staff, alumni and friends as a way to honor loved ones and to commemorate Morehouse School of Medicine’s commitment to providing quality healthcare to underserved populations. Also along the pathway are engraved bricks given in memory of Patti LaBelle’s sisters. Our goal is to have as many bricks as possible along the pathway. Purchasing commemorative bricks is an excellent way to remember friends, family, and special occasions such as a birthday or anniversary. In fact, purchasing bricks is also a way for parents and students to remember their years at MSM.
The cost of each brick is $50, of which a portion is tax-deductible. By purchasing a brick you will not only mark our place in history but your contribution also will help provide financial support to our mission of serving the medically underserved.
To cement your place in Morehouse School of Medicine history, complete the Campaign Brick Form and mail it along with your contribution today.
MSM Faculty and Staff Campaign
As members of the MSM faculty and staff, we are the guiding force behind this School's remarkable progress and success.
Together, we make a great and positive impact on
MSM and our students. We encourage and invite you to join us today by making a gift to this year's
Faculty/Staff Annual Fund Campaign.
We have revised our Faculty/Staff Campaign so that you can choose to designate your gift to a specific program as follows:
- Family Fund Scholarship
- M.P.H. Scholarship
- Ph.D. Sscholarship
- Annual Fund Unrestricted
- Marjorie McCoy Smith Endowed Scholarship
In 2004-05 Faculty/Staff Campaign our goal is to have 35 percent faculty and staff participation. That would be a 14 percent increase from our last campaign which had 21 percent participation.
It will take everyone's renewed commitment to exceed this participation rate. Thank you in advance for your support.
Faculty and Staff gifts may qualify as a matching gift through a spouse’s company. Enter the name of your spouse's employer at the CASE Foundation web site to determine if an organization has a matching gift program (with a 1:1 match - that's a doubling of your gift!).
ANNUAL FUND
How can you make a difference?
All gifts to the Annual Fund are important and have an impact. For example:
A Gift of…
Will Fund…
$1,000
A first or second year student Technology fee
$2,500
Five students subject boards testing
$5,000
A student’s health insurance for four years
$10,000
Three students first-hand international health exposure
$27,000
Full tuition for one year for a medical student
$30,000
An endowment for scholarship or medical research
Simply put, as an Annual Fund participant, you help Morehouse School of Medicine continue to grow as an incomparable place of higher learning.
There are a variety of ways to give to Morehouse School of Medicine from Annual Fund gifts to Major Gifts, to Planned Gifts. Also there are many naming opportunities for outright gifts from scholarships to faculty chairs to buildings on campus.
If you would like more information about making a planned gift, please contact Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D. at (404) 752-1942 or email mmurphy@msm.edu.
Note to Nate: Naming Opportunity link to page 18 of the Policies and Procedures)
How You Can Make a Difference:
Major GiftsAll gifts to Morehouse School of Medicine are important. Major gifts - private support of $25,000 or more paid over a maximum of five years - are especially vital to the School's continued excellence.
Major gifts can make significant change happen at Morehouse School of Medicine: they can add momentum to a strategic direction, initiate a new program, raise a project's profile in the curriculum, and provide significant opportunities that would not exist with government funding alone.
Donors who make this exceptionally generous commitment to Morehouse School of Medicine can direct their gifts to one or more School priorities that align with their own interests, including student scholarships, faculty teaching and research, libraries, and campus facilities, both existing buildings and new structures.
The importance of unrestricted gifts to Morehouse School of Medicine cannot be overstated. In short, they allow students, faculty, and staff throughout the School to respond quickly to opportunities that arise outside of daily budgets or targeted campaign initiatives.
Because of the very nature of unrestricted resources, it is hard to predict how those resources will be used. However, unrestricted funds are likely to be utilized by the School president to maintain the excellence of the School. The availability of such discretionary funding – so critical at a time when world events and research breakthroughs happen at lightning speed – is a hallmark of a great institution.
It is those contributors who take a big-picture view of Morehouse School of Medicine, who see that the School's wide-ranging endeavors are all facets of the same gem, who will help keep Morehouse School of Medicine ahead of the curve – by giving to the Unrestricted Fund.
Currently, more than 90 percent of Morehouse School of Medicine’s students receive some form of financial aid. But the need of our students is far greater than the funds available. On average, the amount of educational debt accumulated by a Morehouse School of Medicine student upon graduation exceeds $100,000.
While the salary of a primary care physician is far lower than that of a specialist such as a neurosurgeon or cardiologist, our students still have compassion to practice primary care, as it is instilled in them as students at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Sixty percent of MSM medical graduates practice in medically underserved areas as primary care physicians.
Your scholarships will enable the School to recruit today’s most promising students – students who contribute to the vitality of the classroom and are most likely to become tomorrow’s preeminent medical professionals, dedicated educators, and civic leaders.
Scholarship donors have a number of options. Among them: creating an endowed fund; supporting an existing scholarship in an area of interest or in honor of someone; or joining alumni and friends to help fund the general scholarship fund.
Endowment SupportA strong endowment is critical to attracting and retaining excellent faculty, to ensuring that deserving students have the opportunity to pursue their dream of becoming a medical doctor, and to maintaining excellence in education, patient care, community service, and research.
Endowment funds are permanent, invested funds from which the annual earnings are used to support a specific academic program or project, as designated by the donor. The usual annual payout is five percent of the corpus. Endowments enable the School to formulate strategic planning that will provide the highest quality academic environment for future generations of students and professors.
Research SupportMorehouse School of Medicine has mounted strong initiatives in research that can be expanded with additional financial support. In Morehouse School of Medicine's research centers, promising investigators often require institutional support until they have achieved initial results, afterwhich foundation or government funding can be sought.
Moreover, talented young investigators often select schools that provide the initial support needed for their innovative research. In areas of established success, such as cardiovascular research or neuroscience, new initiatives may require major investments in equipment. Start-up funds for research range from $100,000 to $125,000 per year for a minimum of three years.
Gift ClubsLeadership giving has been a part of Morehouse School of Medicine since unprecedented gifts founded the institution in 1975!
Morehouse School of Medicine recognizes those friends and alumni whose support has been crucial to its success. Giving clubs were formed to honor and show appreciation to those donors.
Please join the generous alumni and friends of Morehouse School of Medicine who have supported the School with leadership gifts. Two of the five Annual Fund gift clubs, the Presidents’ Club and the 1975 Founder’s Society, allow you to be a leader for Morehouse School of Medicine.
We extend our deepest thanks to our alumni and friends who made gifts to the Annual Fund last year. Over $194,000 in support was generated from the Annual Fund, most of which were contributed by gift club donors.
• Benefits of Membership
• Acknowledgement in Morehouse School of Medicine publications
• Acknowledgement in the Honor Roll of Donors on our website
• Invitations to special events on and off campus
• A parking pass for use when visiting campus (Please call (404) 752-1730 before your visit to campus to arrange for your parking pass)
Becoming a MemberMembership in a gift club is renewable annually. A variety of gift levels are available. Corporate matching gifts count toward gift club membership. Couples qualify through their total combined giving.
Gift Club Levels
1975 Founders’ Society $10,000 + President’s Club $1,000 - $9,999 Dean’s Club $500 - $999 Caduceus Club $250 - $499 Century Club $100 - $249
Donor Recognition SocietyA shared commitment of advancing Morehouse School of Medicine to new and higher levels of achievement characterizes members of The Sullivan Society, a recognition society for those who cumulative giving is $100,000 or more.