F O R FOR ANN ANNUAL UA L S U SUPPORT PPORT
1,800 students receive financial assistance each year $25 million in financial aid is distributed annually 1 in every 8 dollars comes from The Wesleyan Fund 9 students currently rely on the support of The Parent Fund
IS What THE WESLEYAN FUND? The Wesleyan Fund consists of gifts of all sizes that are used in their entirety each year. Gifts to The Wesleyan
Fund account for five percent of the University’s annual operating budget, and because the gifts are not restricted to a specific purpose, they can be put to use to meet the most important and pressing needs of the University.
SUPPORT THE Why WESLEYAN FUND? Ensuring Affordability
Nine in ten Wesleyan students receive financial aid, and one in every eight dollars of financial aid comes from The Wesleyan Fund. Giving opportunities: • Existing Scholarships – Gifts of $25 and up support existing scholarships for students with financial need. • Annual Scholarships – Gifts of $2,500 and up allow you to establish an annuallyfunded scholarship in your name or the name of a loved one. • Endowed Scholarships – Gifts of $25,000 or more allow you to establish a named scholarship fund that will provide an annual scholarship in perpetuity. • Parent Fund – Gifts of all sizes help to assist a student who has lost a breadwinning parent while enrolled.
Enhancing Academics The Wesleyan Fund makes finances available to enhance the curriculum, fund research, send faculty and students to conferences, and more. • 86 faculty members received monetary awards for Artistic and Scholarly Development and Senior Research Leave in 2008. • $283,000 in faculty research awards have been allocated from The Wesleyan Fund over the past four years; this investment has generated $1,335,735 in external funding support.
Enriching Campus Life The Wesleyan Fund supports activities and programs that promote the quality of campus life. • 8 in 10 students live on campus. Weekly energy costs to keep lights on and students warm: $7,000 • 5 main stage theatre productions are performed each year. Total production cost (scenery, lighting, costumes, etc.) per show: $12,000 • 500 students are varsity athletes on campus. Annual cost of game officials for all 18 varsity sports: $30,000
Strengthening our Reputation Strong annual giving programs are measures of strength for bond-rating agencies like Standard and Poor’s and annual college rankings like US News & World Report. In 2008, fewer than one in four alumni gave to The Wesleyan Fund—our goal is to increase support to one in three.
A F F O R D A B I L I T Y + A C A D E M I C S + C A M P U S L I F E + R E P U TAT I O N
Meet Jim O’Neal, '95 President/Owner, O’Neal Builders Established the O’Neal Scholarship
“I loved my experience at Illinois Wesleyan, and I owe a great deal of my success to the education I received and the relationships I made during my time on campus. I didn’t receive any financial aid, but I know the great majority of my friends got some form of assistance to attend—and I know close to 90 percent of current students receive aid. That’s why I wanted to create my own scholarship fund, to help students just like those who made my time at Wesleyan so meaningful.
95 %
of graduates are employed or in graduate school within 6 months _________________
92 %
of those who graduate do so in 4 years _________________
“We all have a person in our lives that we believe we could not live without. For me, that person was my father. He was the first person I would go to with my joys and sorrows, accomplishments and troubles. He was the greatest influence in my life.
90 %
of students receive scholarships or needbased assistance _________________
I lost my dad in 2006 to a heart attack, and it was undoubtedly the hardest thing I will ever face in my life. At the same time, the chance to stay here and graduate from this wonderful institution is among the best gifts I will ever receive. Through families like yours who support The Parent Fund, my education here has been made possible. For that, I am forever grateful.”
23 %
of alumni give back
Many of my friends from college are doing great things today, and I don’t know if they always give enough credit to Wesleyan for giving us the tools to be successful. That’s the other reason I’ve created this scholarship—I hope to be a model for my peers in giving back to a place that helped shape us into who we are today.”
Meet Thomas Schroeder, '09 Parent Fund Recipient
to Illinois Wesleyan
www.iwu.edu/giving/
O F F I C E O F A D VA N C E M E N T
PO Box 2900 Bloomington, Illinois 61702-2900 Toll free 1-800-689-9743
www.iwu.edu