Writing a New Chapter

The past year was our most momentous since 1900, when the business program began at the University of Wisconsin.

On October 27, 2007, 13 individuals created the Wisconsin Naming Partnership by joining together to make a unique $85 million gift that named the Wisconsin School of Business in honor of a state and university that have supported a world-class business school for more than a century.

The Wisconsin Naming Gift was announced prior to the Homecoming game to several hundred alumni and friends gathered in Grainger Hall’s atrium. Many others around the world watched the announcement unfold via a live Webcast.

Within hours of the announcement, the world began taking note. BusinessWeek, CNN, CBS Radio, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal ran stories about the unique gift. Proud alumni reported reading about the innovative approach of the “no-name naming gift” in publications as far away as the China Daily News.

But the gift’s announcement was only the start of the story.

Wisconsin School of Business alumni and friends all over the world responded to a challenge from one of the Wisconsin Naming Partners. The anonymous partner offered to match every individual gift given to the school’s unrestricted annual funds between the naming gift’s announcement on October 27, 2007 and December 31, 2007. The more than $1,072,000 received from alumni and friends was matched by $1 million — creating a record-breaking year for annual fund gifts.

In announcing the gift, Dean Michael Knetter predicted its major impacts would be felt in terms of recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty members, keeping the school’s undergraduate program strong, enhancing resources available to the school’s Wisconsin MBA programs, and bolstering its extensive offerings in executive education.

Because approximately $70 million of the $85 million naming gift is unrestricted, the school can put the money to work in areas where the impact is greatest. In our first year with Wisconsin Naming Gift resources, remarkable strides already have been made, reflected in:

• The hiring of one of the largest and best credentialled cohorts of incoming faculty members in more than a decade.
• Progress in the move toward sophomore admission, as part of a major re-invention of the undergraduate experience.
• Enhancements in national marketing of the Wisconsin MBA, resulting in a 14 percent increase in applicants.
• Development of new initiatives to better engage alumni.
• Increased teaching and research support packages for all assistant professors.