Allen gift launches $1B fundraising campaign

 

 

 

SEATTLE – Paul G. Allen, investor, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Inc., has made the largest gift to WSU in the school’s history, $26 million to support programs and fund construction in the School for Global Animal Health.

 

The gift was announced Thursday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center during the kickoff event for the public phase of The Campaign for Washington State University: Because the World Needs Big Ideas.

 

Begun in July 2006, the campaign’s goal is to raise $1 billion by 2015 to coincide with the university’s 125th anniversary. To date, $532.2 million has been committed.

 

 

 

“Washington State University has been important to me since I was a student there in the 1970s,” Allen said. “Our family foundation, under the leadership of my sister Jody, has supported a number of programs at WSU. And today, I am happy to be able to make a significant personal gift to help WSU broaden its reach and touch many more lives.

“Expansion of the School for Global Animal Health will foster important research to improve Africa’s capabilities to respond to animal-borne diseases,” he said. “I also look forward to seeing faculty and student exchanges that will tie WSU to communities in Africa in lasting ways.”

Allen and Butch

 

“Paul Allen’s vision is matched only by his tremendous generosity,” said WSU President Elson S. Floyd. “As his alma mater, WSU is honored to receive such a transformational gift. It will make a lasting and profound difference in the effort to improve the health and quality of life of people worldwide.”

 

 

 

Campaign kickoff celebration in Terrell Library Atrium. Video by Tim Marsh, WSU Today

The gift will support the mission of the School for Global Animal Health, which is providing solutions to health challenges worldwide through detection of pathogens, control of disease transmission and vaccine development.

 

Part of the gift will be used to complete the matching portion of the funding for construction of the $35 million School for Global Animal Health Building, which is partially funded through a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Construction on that 62,000-square-foot research building began on the Pullman campus in June; completion is expected in spring 2012.

 

As a result of the gift, the School for Global Animal Health will be renamed the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health and the building will be named the Paul G. Allen Center for Global Animal Health.

 

 

 

The school and its researchers work to unlock the secrets of zoonotic diseases, infections that are transmitted from animals to humans. Those diseases account for more than 70 percent of human infectious diseases, with a disproportionate impact in the developing world.

 

The School for Global Animal Health has eight research scientists; 12 affiliated faculty, which are joint positions with other WSU-based departments; and five adjunct faculty, who are based in institutions outside the United States.

 

Over the next 10 years, in large part through the Allen gift, the school plans to add more than 20 research scientists in Pullman with extensive outreach in Africa and throughout the world. The number of graduate students conducting research is expected to grow to more than 100 by 2020.

 

The gift will allow the university to move forward with its plan to establish research programs in Africa, build laboratory capacity in joint exchange programs, and collaborate on graduate education between WSU and institutions in Kenya and Tanzania. By the end of the 10-year period, the goal is to help those programs become self-sufficient.

 

“Paul Allen’s gift is remarkable in terms of its commitment. This gift leverages WSU’s capacity over a 10-year period to develop true partnerships with our international colleagues,” said Guy Palmer, Regents professor and director of the School for Global Animal Health.

 

“The result will be healthier animals, healthier and more economically secure families, and a brighter future for some of the most gracious and hardworking people in the world,” he said. “We are honored by Paul’s trust and committed to fulfilling our shared vision.”

 

About Paul Allen

 

Allen received the university’s highest honor, the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, in 1999. He attended WSU 1971-74, left to work in the computer industry in Boston and founded Microsoft with his friend Bill Gates in 1975. He remained the company’s chief technologist through 1983.

 

He is the founder and chairman of the board of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc. This gift is a personal gift from Allen, and not from the foundation, which has been a generous supporter of a number of WSU initiatives and programs in the past decade.

 

Allen’s diverse investment portfolio includes holdings in real estate, technology, media and other companies. He also owns the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League, the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association, and is part of the ownership group for the Seattle Sounders FC, Seattle’s Major League Soccer team.

 

 

 

The announcement of the Allen gift was a highlight of the statewide kickoff of the public phase of The Campaign for Washington State University: Because the World Needs Big Ideas.

 

Alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends gathered at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, in the Terrell Library atrium on the Pullman campus, on campuses in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver, and in agricultural research and extension centers around the state to celebrate the campaign milestone.

 

More than 130,000 donors have contributed to the campaign since it began its quiet phase on July 1, 2006. Contributions have supported professorships and chairs, scholarships, graduate fellowships, research and academic programs and state-of-the-art facilities.

All areas benefit

 

“Their gifts have touched all 12 colleges, four campuses, the libraries, athletics and extension, and in the process have touched the lives of every student and faculty member at Washington State University,” Floyd said. “Through gifts large and small, this extraordinary generosity represents the strategic investments necessary for WSU to power the next wave of big ideas that will change the world.”

 

Of the $1 billion goal, more than $300 million is designated to support the student experience, with more than $180 million directly supporting student scholarships and fellowships. Nearly $250 million is sought to attract and retain outstanding faculty to teach and conduct research. Key research initiatives, academic and outreach programs, and the construction and renovation of state-of-the-art facilities make up the balance of the campaign goal.

 

“With the generous help of our alumni and friends, Washington State University will be better at educating the leaders of tomorrow; better at serving the citizens and industries of the state; and better at conducting the research that will play a significant role in helping the world tackle some of the most vexing issues of our time,” said Floyd.

 

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