The Campaign for UMKC announces $5 million gift.
The dinner was standard banquet fare, but dessert was very sweet indeed: a $5 million booster shot for entrepreneurship and economic development efforts at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The event was the first Annual Dinner for the four-year-old UMKC Foundation. Chancellor Leo E. Morton announced that the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation had pledged $5 million to The Campaign for UMKC to support construction of a new Free Enterprise Center on UMKC’s Volker Campus – a $14.8 million product development hub to be used by entrepreneurs, local industry, and high school and college students.
Another highlight of the evening was the presentation of the inaugural UMKC Foundation Award of Distinction. It was presented to entrepreneur, civic leader and longtime UMKC patron Henry W. Bloch.
“Henry and Marion Bloch wanted this to be a city where people, regardless of income or stature, have access to education, the visual and performing arts and health and social services. So about a year ago, Henry celebrated his birthday by giving gifts to the rest of us. He established the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation to provide for the city he loves,” Morton said.
The event also featured a recap of the foundation’s progress over the past year – a year that included a new record for the number of total donors and an almost 10 percent increase in the university’s endowment, from $235 million to $256 million. The campaign has now raised $173 million, 79 percent of the $250 million goal.
Reviewed 2013-10-11