Historic gifts

Donations set new records at Virginia Tech and U.Va.

Published May 31, 2019 by Robert Powell, III

Two massive gifts promise to move the needle on research and workforce development in Virginia.

In December, the Horace G. Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin jointly donated $50 million to what is now the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion in Roanoke. The donation is twice the size of the next-largest gift ever received by Tech.

The very next month, the University of Virginia announced a $120 million gift, the largest private donation in the university’s history. The gift came from the Quantitative Foundation operated by a Charlottesville couple, Jaffray and Merrill Woodriff, both U.Va. alums.

The Fralin gift will be used to hire and retain teams of physician-scientists and researchers at the expanding biomedical research institute.

The Woodriff gift meanwhile will be used to create the U.Va. School of Data Science. The school is expected to help the commonwealth meet rapidly growing demand for data scientists in a variety of industries.

The following pages explore the impact these gifts are expected to have while also offering a look at other major donations made by Virginians last year.

Creating a talent pipeline
$120 million gift will be used to create data-science school.
by Veronica Garabelli

The multiplier effect
$50 million gift expected to accelerate biomedical research in Roanoke.
by Heather B. Hayes

Generous Virginians charts:

• Total corporate donations
• Donations by individuals and family foundations
• Donations by companies and corporate foundations
• Donations by independent foundations and groups