One Billion and Counting
The Give Light Campaign surpassed a historic milestone in May — eclipsing the $1 billion mark in philanthropy given to support University initiatives and programs.
This marks an important moment as the campaign inches toward the goal of generating $1.1 billion in funding for strategic priorities outlined in Illuminate.
But it is so much more than just a milestone.
The Baylor Family has rallied around these initiatives in unprecedented ways. The Give Light campaign represents alumni who have given generously. It represents families — generations of Baylor Bears — who have chosen to weave their family’s legacy with that Good Old Baylor Line through endowments and gifts to scholarships. It represents the churches, businesses and foundations who have given to advance Baylor’s Christian mission.
The Give Light campaign is a bold step toward a bright future for Baylor. It is a step that we can only take because of the support and investment of our Baylor Family.
Below are a few highlights representing the incredible, transformational impact the Baylor Family’s philanthropy is having here at Baylor.
Enhancing the Academy
Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders
In the earliest days of the Give Light campaign, anonymous Baylor alumni made a $10 million gift to the department of communication sciences and disorders to transform students’ educational experiences. The gift funded a faculty chair to lead the department, provided resources to create a newly renovated Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic for student training and research, created scholarship support and faculty development as well as community engagement. Other alumni have since stepped forward with gifts to create scholarships, fund faculty positions and enhance community outreach. In 2018, the Waco Scottish Rite provided a $1.6 million gift to create a permanent endowment for Camp Success, a free, intensive summer language and literacy intervention program for children. In 2021, Robbins College announced an expansion, creating the Autism Clinic within the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.
Carpenter Embedded Classroom
March 2017: Baylor announced a gift from Don, B.B.A. ’81, and Janette Carpenter establishing the Carpenter Embedded Global Classroom, the University’s first fully funded study-abroad embedded classroom. School of Education students participate firsthand in comparative educational experiences through the Carpenter Embedded Classroom in locations around the globe at no additional cost to the student. The program’s purpose is to help produce teachers who possess a broad cultural competency and excellence in teaching.
Baylor Academic Challenge
May 2019: Baylor announced the creation of the Baylor Academic Challenge, part of a $100 million gift from an anonymous Baylor family to help incentivize leadership gifts from other alumni, parents and friends to enhance endowment support for faculty. In two years, the Baylor Academic Challenge’s dollar-for-dollar matching program has helped to create 14 endowed faculty chairs, representing an increase in faculty support, research funding and recruiting support for priority areas of strategic growth within the University and supporting Illuminate.
Maness and L2M
November 2020: In honor of retiring Hankamer School of Business Dean Terry S. Maness, B.A. ’71, M.S. ’72, D.B.A., Baylor alumni joined together in a fundraising effort to support one of his priorities for Baylor and the School of Business: the Lab-to-Market (L2M) program. Led by a $1.5 million gift from an anonymous alumnus, the Terry S. Maness Endowed Chair in Lab-to-Market Entrepreneurship was created with matching support from the Baylor Academic Challenge. Additional funds are being raised to establish programmatic support and undergraduate and graduate student stipends to further L2M’s efforts to translate faculty research into viable commercial and business concepts at Baylor.
Scholarship Support
Support for Generations
Since the beginning of the Give Light campaign, the Baylor Family has responded enthusiastically and generously to the call for scholarship support for Baylor’s students. Alumni, parents and friends have established nearly 600 endowed scholarship funds, creating enduring, transformational scholarship support for students in every school and college. Thank you to every Baylor Family member who has stepped forward and who is considering a gift to scholarships. Your support is making a difference in the lives of our students.
Hord Scholarship Challenge
October 2020: Dan, B.B.A. ’89, and Jenni, B.B.A. ’92, Hord of Midland, Texas, established a $30 million gift commitment, challenging the Baylor Family to match their giving to Baylor through support of merit-based scholarships to help deserving students bridge the gap between merit- and need-based financial aid and unmet financial need. The Hord Scholarship Challenge is intended to spark enthusiasm among Baylor’s alumni, parents and friends, building a community of merit-based scholarship donors who will help generations of Baylor students fully embrace the Baylor experience.
Trailblazer Scholars Program
February 2021: Baylor announced fundraising for the Trailblazer Scholars Program has surpassed $2 million in scholarship support since the program’s creation in July 2020. An interdepartmental collaboration, the Trailblazer Scholars Program recognizes the importance of fostering diversity, equity, belonging and mutual respect at Baylor through a scholarship program that fosters leadership development and service-learning opportunities for Baylor students. Pairing with the University’s $5 million institutional commitment to the program, alumni, parents and friends have established five endowed scholarships and have given to the general scholarship fund, totaling more than $2.1 million in support.
Enriching Community
Beauchamp Addiction Recovery Center
January 2017: Baylor dedicated the Beauchamp Addiction and Recovery Center (BARC), made possible by a $2.5 million gift from Bob and Laura Beauchamp of Houston. The BARC provides support services for students facing substance use disorders and creates a community supportive of students in recovery and students with friends or family in recovery. Subsequent gifts from the Baylor Family have provided programmatic support and emergency use funds to enhance the services provided through the BARC.
Baylor Built
December 2018: Baylor announced the creation of the Baylor Built program within Baylor Athletics, a character formation program to prepare student-athletes to succeed in life after competition. Launched with a $500,000 gift from Jeremy, B.A. ’97, and Kristy Fudge of Parker, Texas, the program is part of Preparing Champions for Life, Baylor Athletics’ vision for combining character formation and faith development with academic and on-field success for student-athletes. Since the Fudges’ initial gift, many other Baylor families have joined in giving current gifts and endowment support toward the program.
Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty
September 2019: The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty announced a $2.6 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to support its work to end hunger in Texas. Since 2012, the Walmart Foundation has awarded the Collaborative more than $9.8 million in grant funding to support efforts to increase access to healthy food through learning labs, direct outreach, research and policy engagement.
President’s Excellence Fund
April 2020: In the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic response at Baylor, President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., and her team identified emergency funding as an immediate need for Baylor’s students. Faced with job loss, illness, relocation and technology needs, Baylor’s students saw their worlds shift in a matter of weeks when spring break turned into virtual learning as the country responded to the pandemic. Baylor’s alumni, parents and friends responded to Livingstone’s call for support, giving to the President’s Excellence Fund and allowing Baylor to provide more than $1.5 million in emergency funding to students experiencing financial hardship.
Capital Projects
Mark & Paula Hurd Welcome Center
November 2018: Coinciding with the launch of the Give Light campaign’s public phase was the announcement of a lead naming gift from Paula Hurd and her husband, the late Mark Hurd, B.B.A. ’79, to build the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center as Baylor’s new front door. The Hurd Welcome Center will serve as a gathering space for alumni and the first stop for all prospective students and visitors coming to Baylor. Construction is slated to begin this summer.
Billy W. Williams Golf Practice Facility
November 2018: Baylor dedicated the Billy W. Williams Golf Practice Facility and Clubhouse, a nearly 8,000-square-foot facility on a 16.5-acre site that serves as home for the Men’s and Women’s Golf programs. Named in honor and memory of the late Billy W. Williams, B.B.A. ’63, the facility was made possible through Billy’s generosity and the gifts of his wife Elaine and three children. Williams, a former football letterwinner, and his family previously provided the lead gift for the Williams Family Soccer Center, which opened in 2015.
Baylor Basketball Pavilion
May 2019: Baylor announced a $100 million gift, the largest current gift ever received by the University, from an anonymous Baylor family. Part of the gift included a lead gift for the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as the new home for the Men’s and Women’s Basketball programs. In May 2021, Baylor announced a $7 million gift from Paula Hurd, naming the Mark and Paula Hurd Floor within the Pavilion.
Tidwell Bible Building
April 2019: The Sunderland Foundation of Overland Park, Kansas, provided the lead gift for the renovation and historic restoration of the iconic Tidwell Bible Building. Work to renovate the 67-year old building’s faculty offices and classrooms began in 2020. The newly renovated building will provide increased accessibility, technologically enhanced and adaptable classrooms and increased square footage for faculty offices and community spaces.
Bricks for Baylor
July 2021: After celebrating the $1 billion milestone, the momentum of the Give Light campaign continues with the launch of Bricks for Baylor — an opportunity to support Give Light with 4-inch-by-8-inch or 8-inch-by-8-inch personalized bricks.
The installation of bricks bearing names, messages, memorials and celebrations is a tradition displayed across Baylor’s campus. Students, alumni, parents and friends have invested in the footprint of the University in spaces such as the Sesquicentennial Walkway, Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat, Lt. Jack Whetsel Basketball Practice Facility, McLane Stadium and Traditions Plaza.
Bricks for Baylor continues the lasting tradition of integrating bricks into the landscape of campus to display the legacies of those who love and celebrate all that Baylor has meant to them. As we look to the future of Baylor University, the entire Baylor Family is invited to participate in the Give Light campaign through Bricks for Baylor.