For health and hope
First capital campaign exceeds goal and makes history
Every gift makes a difference
In 2004, the vision for the UT Health Science Center San Antonio included new homes for its medical and dental practices, a signature building for biomedical research, and endowments and program support to attract and retain the best faculty and students.
Simultaneously, the state was steadily reducing its appropriations to higher education and the National Institutes of Health was trimming grant support, making research funding even more competitive. It was a good time, officials believed, to launch the university’s first comprehensive capital campaign.
What followed over the next decade surpassed even the most optimistic goals and ignited the fuel that would propel the university forward.
The original goal for The Campaign for the Future of Health was $300 million to support the university’s missions of research, education, patient care and community service. The community responded.
“We had momentum and the mission drove us to expand our goal,” said Health Science Center President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP. “We reached for the stars, and set our sights on $500 million by Jan. 1, 2014.”
From 2004 to 2014, 14,123 donors contributed 42,327 gifts to reach a final tally of $607 million.
“What we saw was how invested our community was in the future of health,” Dr. Henrich said. “The byproduct of their efforts is hope, and the beneficiaries are our patients and students.”
It was a $25 million lead gift from The Greehey Family Foundation that ignited the campaign. It allowed for the creation of the Greehey President’s Endowment for Excellence in Children’s Health Sciences, which supports cancer research and educational and community programs benefiting children, especially those in greatest need. As the campaign was coming to an end, the foundation announced its second gift—$5 million to establish the Greehey President’s Fund for faculty recruitment in medicine and dentistry, new endowments in pediatrics, and educational programs for students and faculty to provide patient care for those in need.
Today, the Health Science Center is home to the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute and the Greehey Academic and Research Campus. The naming acknowledges the vital support from the Greehey Family Foundation, Dr. Henrich said.
“We needed a champion, and we found one in Bill Greehey,” he said. “It’s only fitting that our campaign culminated with a major gift from him.”
There were other standouts. In 2008, philanthropists Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long established the largest endowment in university history. The $25 million gift established The Joe R. and Teresa L. Long Scholarship Research and Teaching Fund, an endowment that supports more than 50 students each year in medicine, nursing, graduate biosciences and physician assistant studies. It also supports endowments for faculty and research programs. The gift, which is one of the single largest cash gifts to an endowment in The University of Texas System, was recognized with the naming of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus at the Health Science Center.
The largest gift to the campaign was the Cancer Therapy & Research Center in 2007. The CTRC Foundation contributed an in-kind gift of CTRC facilities and equipment along with a cash gift of $24.5 million, and annual support, in perpetuity, from the CTRC Foundation endowment for the cancer program.
“The Health Science Center has earned its place as the chief catalyst for San Antonio’s $29.2 billion biosciences and health care industry,” said Campaign Chair John T. Montford. “The UT Health Science Center continues to impact the city’s economy in a substantial way through the competitive jobs it creates and the biomedical research discoveries that ease suffering and improve health.”
In one decade, in addition to donations and other funding raised through the campaign, the Health Science Center has secured $158 million in Permanent University Funds and $38 million in tuitionrevenue bonds for university projects. And its 2004 vision has been realized. The new facility for physician practice, UT Health San Antonio at the Medical Arts & Research Center, was opened in 2009. To attract exceptional biomedical scientists to San Antonio, the South Texas Research Facility was opened in 2011. And a new home for dental practice, the Center for Oral Health Care & Research, is expected to open in 2015.
Dr. Henrich said he is humbled by the community’s response, but “our work is not done.”
“Although the path to deciphering some of our most vexing health challenges may seem daunting at times,” he said, “it’s the spirit and support of our community that is the light that leads us on this uphill journey. We are San Antonio’s academic health science center, and our job is the future of health for this region and beyond.”
