Alum presents Exxon Mobil record matching gift

Exxon Mobil executive and Cornell alumna Elissa P. Sterry, left, presents a check to Cornell President Hunter Rawlings representing a matching donation from the ExxonMobil Foundation. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Susan Lang

Cornell alumna Elissa P. Sterry, B.S. '79, M.S. '81, deputy manager of public affairs for Exxon Mobil Corp. in Irving, Texas, presented a check for $340,000 to Cornell President Hunter Rawlings May 21. The award is among the largest matching gifts made to a university this year by the ExxonMobil Foundation and is the largest matching gift this year given by any company to Cornell.

Cornell ranks fifth among 930 university and college recipients of ExxonMobil Foundation awards in the United States, said Sterry; and the top four recipients all are located close to Irving, in the Texas and Louisiana area.

"We are very pleased to receive this support from the ExxonMobil Foundation," said Rawlings. "It represents the excellent relationship Cornell has with the Exxon Mobil Corporation and with company employees and retirees who are our alumni. The unrestricted nature of this gift permits us the flexibility to apply it where it is most needed."

The ExxonMobil Foundation matches $3 for every $1 donated by its employees, retirees, surviving spouses and board members. Under the ExxonMobil Educational Matching Gift Program, donors can give up to $5,000 a year to their colleges and universities and have it tripled by the foundation. Corporate gift-matching was pioneered by General Electric in the 1950s and is popular today among donors and universities, but a 3-to-1 match is uncommon.

In 2001 ExxonMobil Foundation awarded more than $16.6 million in unrestricted grants to colleges and universities to match donations. Since the company's matching gift program began in 1962, the foundation has donated more than $250 million to higher education in the United States.

A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Sterry previously was an Exxon Mobil vice president with responsibility for the company's worldwide ethylene elastomers business. She also serves on the board of directors for several of ExxonMobil Chemical's joint ventures.