The University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business has launched a landmark $37 million fundraising campaign designed to expand student opportunities, attract world-class faculty, and advance research that will help organizations and communities create lasting impact. The five-year effort, The Climb to Excellence, is anchored by a transformational $15 million challenge grant from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation that will inspire and catalyze an additional $22 million in philanthropic support.
The Emma Eccles Jones Foundation announced today its largest gift, matching the historic 1991 gift by Emma Eccles Jones that established an endowment in honor of her father, pioneering industrialist David Eccles. That investment reshaped the school by creating new opportunities for thousands of students. The new challenge grant is intended to build on that legacy by creating even greater opportunity and impact in the decades ahead.
“I often reflect on the accomplishments of my grandfather, David Eccles, and the generosity of my aunt, Emma Eccles Jones, whose endowment has strengthened the school for 35 years,” said Spencer Fox Eccles, chairman of the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation. “Her transformative gift set the Eccles School on the path to where it is today — a premier destination for learning and innovation with more than 50,000 alumni living all over the world and serving as leaders of business, industry, and entrepreneurship. I believe that my grandfather and my Aunt Em would be proud of the legacy this school has created through educating, mentoring, and shaping the futures of tens of thousands of students who are following David’s great example.”
The campaign focuses on four investment areas designed to expand opportunities for students, strengthen faculty excellence, and amplify the Eccles School’s impact on education, business, and stronger communities.
Endowed deanship
An endowed deanship to attract exceptional business school leaders while providing flexible resources to advance innovative initiatives, strengthen partnerships, and respond to emerging opportunities. The Cumming Foundation has committed $7.5 million to create the Ian M. Cumming Endowed Deanship, among the largest endowed deanship at any business school in the country. This gift unlocked $2.5 million from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation to create the Emma Eccles Jones Presidential Endowed Chair.
Endowed faculty chairs and professorships
Endowed faculty positions to help recruit and retain outstanding scholars whose teaching prepares future business leaders and whose research addresses pressing challenges facing business and society.
Raising $10 million will unlock an additional $5 million from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation.
David Eccles Scholars
The David Eccles Scholars program to provide meaningful scholarship support while creating a premier cohort experience centered on leadership development, professional growth, and experiential learning for outstanding students.
Raising $3 million will unlock $4.5 million from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation.
Unrestricted endowment funds
Flexible endowment support to invest in emerging opportunities, respond to evolving needs, and advance innovative initiatives that create long-term value for students, faculty, and the broader business community.
Raising $1.5 million will unlock $3 million from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation.
“Education is from the Latin word ‘educare’ which means ‘to rear’ or ‘to bring up’ and also ‘to lead out’ or ‘to draw out.’ This is important to know,” said Frederick Q. Lawson, a director of the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation. “Aunt Em was a teacher and not only knew the importance of education but also instilled its importance in those young minds she taught in kindergarten at the Whittier School in Logan and also at Mills College in California. And those of us of the family who knew her as Aunt Em also were educated by her. In a sense every student who begins study here at the David Eccles School of Business is beginning anew. This fine school will help ‘bring up’ the student in the ways of business, and ‘draw out’ the best skills and practices. This new endowment will also impact research students and faculty in helping them to ‘lead out’ the best. I am sure Aunt Em and great-grandfather David would be pleased and delighted in this lasting legacy.”
The campaign builds on more than three decades of leadership that began with Emma Eccles Jones’ historic naming gift. Since then, the Eccles School has grown into one of the nation’s leading business schools, expanding access to business education, launching nationally recognized centers and institutes, attracting world-class faculty, creating immersive experiential learning opportunities, producing research that informs business practice and public policy, and preparing generations of graduates to lead organizations and strengthen communities. This campaign seeks to build on that momentum while creating new opportunities for future generations.
“This campaign represents an investment in people and ideas that will create impact far beyond our campus,” said Kurt Dirks, Dean of the David Eccles School of Business. “By expanding opportunity for students, attracting exceptional faculty, and advancing research that helps organizations and communities thrive, we’re strengthening the role the Eccles School plays in preparing principled leaders and contributing solutions to the challenges facing business and society.”
