$50 million gift to Weill-CU advances its capital campaign

By Jonathan Weil

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., dean of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell, has announced that the school has received a $50 million unrestricted anonymous bequest that it will use to create an unprecedented challenge grant for its $750 million capital campaign -- one of the largest ever undertaken by a medical college.

The challenge will use the bequest to match major philanthropic gifts to Weill Cornell's campaign, known as Advancing the Clinical Mission. The challenge will accelerate the campaign, which already is more than halfway toward its $750-million goal.

"We have decided that the most effective use of this extraordinary gift is to create a challenge in which donors' gifts to our capital campaign, Advancing the Clinical Mission, will be matched," said Gotto, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell. "We hope to maximize this gift by creating a compelling new opportunity for philanthropy to the medical college."

The challenge, with its "matching" strategy, is expected to raise double the amount of the original bequest (i.e., $100 million). It provides new and additional incentives for all campaign contributions -- including planned gifts, investments in endowment and faculty giving. "This challenge provides a tremendous incentive for contributions to the medical college and will allow our supporters to significantly increase the impact of their gifts," said Weill Cornell campaign chairman and Overseer Kevin Brine. "Matching funds will be directed toward the area, or a related area, of the donor's interest, and donors will receive recognition for the total matched gift."

Gifts are eligible for the challenge through Dec. 31, 2004.

"Cornell University is extremely inspired by this generous bequest. It is a remarkable commitment and an enormous endorsement of the medical college's vision for the future of medical education, scientific research and patient care," said President Hunter Rawlings. "Advancing the Clinical Mission aims to ensure that Weill Cornell remains an international leader in the field of academic medicine, and this new challenge will propel that mission forward."

Weill Cornell Medical College has a long and successful history of boosting fund-raising efforts through challenge grants, both independently and as a part of the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center.

During the medical college's previous capital campaign, New Horizons for Medicine, for example, one of the campaign's highlights was the Dyson Foundation Challenge Grant. The Dyson challenge, lasting from November 1997 through June 1998, helped raise a total of $20 million from Weill Cornell's Board of Overseers for the college's Strategic Plan for Research at a critical time in the progress of the campaign.

This dramatic $50 million bequest and challenge grant are also expected to be a crucial catalyst to the success of Weill Cornell's current capital campaign by providing new impetus to recruit new supporters and introducing new philanthropists to the Weill Cornell community.

Weill Cornell's $750 million capital campaign, Advancing the Clinical Mission, was launched in January 2002, with two leadership gifts totaling $150 million from Board of Overseers Chairman Sanford I. Weill and his wife, Joan, and overseer Maurice R. Greenberg and his wife, Corinne. The Weills contributed $100 million, and the Greenbergs, together with the Starr Foundation, made a gift of $50 million. The campaign has raised $386 million to date. Through the capital campaign, Weill Cornell seeks to translate its research discoveries into innovative patient care and ensure the quality and superiority of its future generations of faculty and medical students and facilities.

The campaign specifically calls for 37 new clinical programs -- with an emphasis on women's health, children's health, the heart, the brain, diseases of aging and a variety of specialty care areas ranging from dermatology to otorhinolaryngology. In addition, important endowment and capital funds will be designated toward a medical education initiative.