What if you could see the impact of your bequests now—whether from a will, living
trust, retirement plan beneficiary designations, or other means? That opportunity
is exactly what the Legacy Match provided. The Legacy Match was a matching gift program
that enabled donors to have an immediate impact when they made a planned gift to support
the university. For example, if a future estate gift was valued at $100,000, the donor
could direct up to $10,000 from matching funds to immediately benefit the program
of their choice.
“The Legacy Match program caught my attention as an opportunity to provide immediate support for the School of Pharmacy, based on my planned gift,” says UW School of Pharmacy alum (‘77) and UW Foundation Board member John Pieper. “I believe the program is very innovative, and I have appreciated the opportunity to see my legacy gift in action. This type of strategic and creative thinking is an example of the outstanding work of our University of Wyoming Foundation.”
The pool of $555,000 was used to match 10% of the estimated value of donor future gifts, up to $10,000, and supported Accounting, Alumni Association, Anthropology, Arts and Sciences, ASUW, Athletics, Berry Biodiversity Institute, Botany, Business, Communication and Journalism, Education, Energy Resources, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Football, Geology and Geophysics, Haub School, History, Kinesiology and Health, KUWR, Law, Mathematics, Music, Pharmacy, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, Rodeo, Scholarships and Financial Aid, Visual Arts, and Volleyball. The initiative was a major success, supporting 25 scholarships and leading to 65 newly documented future gifts. Not only that, but the return on investment was 48:1. A total of $27,009,779 in future gifts was leveraged, immensely impacting both current and future UW students.