$115M raised for University of Hawaiʻi students, programs and research

The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation last fiscal year raised $115 million, exceeding by 15% the annual goal for raising funds to support the 10 campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi system.

The final tally for the 2024 fiscal year (July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024) totaled $115.2 million from 18,862 donors. It is the fourth consecutive year that funds raised for the University of Hawaiʻi have exceeded $100 million.

The total was an 11% increase for a fiscal year that included the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation’s launch of For UH • For Hawaiʻi, the public phase of the most ambitious comprehensive fundraising campaign in Hawaiʻi’s history, to raise $1 billion for current and future students, faculty and researchers at all 10 University of Hawaiʻi campuses.

Giving in FY24 included nearly $10 million for programs to benefit relief and recovery from the August 2023 wildfires on Maui, including $1 million from the Stupski Foundation that issued immediate cash payments to UH students within a week of the fires.

The giving also included several sizable gifts to unique and innovative programs, including:

• $5 million from Walter Dods Jr., for the Residences for Innovative Student Entrepreneurs innovation center and student dormitory that opened in August 2023 and was renamed the Walter Dods Jr. RISE Center in his honor.
  
• $3.76 million from John C. Couch to establish the first-ever gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship program at the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine that will train physicians to treat liver diseases, including cancer, in the islands.
  
• $3.5 million to UH Mānoa from the Barbara Barnard Smith Foundation to fund the music department’s first-ever endowed chair for its innovative ethnomusicology program.

The number of gifts rose 3.6% to 24,560, with many of those made by individuals and families in memory of loved ones, including faculty members or their spouses.

Alumni and other individuals also committed substantial gifts to the University of Hawaiʻi for scholarships, faculty, research, facilities and programming for students, including a $2 million gift to create full-ride scholarships for nursing students at University of Hawaiʻi Maui College and a scholarship for students enrolled in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Shidler College of Business master in accounting program, with a preference for students who identify as LGBTQ+.

The total included $30.5 million for student scholarships and other aid, $41.9 million for faculty and academic support and research and $593,538 raised during the university’s first-ever Giving Day in April.