A university-wide push to grow scholarship funding at the University of South Alabama is paying off in a big way, with more than 200 new or improved scholarships created in just months, as school leaders lean on a matching-gift strategy to soften the impact of rising tuition.
The effort traces back to a $50 million gift from Mobile businessman Abe Mitchell, announced during the university’s 50th anniversary celebration. Half of that donation was set aside to create a dollar-for-dollar matching program aimed at growing the university’s undergraduate scholarship endowment, an initiative now named in honor of Mitchell and the late USA president emeritus who helped shape the university for decades.
According to the university’s vice president for development and alumni relations, the matching structure has proven to be an unusually effective motivator for existing donors. A supporter who previously endowed a scholarship, for example, can add a modest new contribution and see it doubled by the matching funds, instantly increasing the size of the award available to a student. That dynamic has encouraged many longtime donors to expand gifts they’d already made rather than start from scratch.
Since the matching campaign launched at the start of the year, it has generated roughly $6 million in gifts and formal pledges. University officials say that has translated into 76 brand-new scholarships and 137 existing scholarships that were enlarged, giving the school considerably more financial aid firepower heading into the fall term.
The timing matters. USA’s Board of Trustees approved its fourth consecutive annual tuition increase this summer, and university leaders have acknowledged that scholarship growth is one of the few tools available to offset rising costs for students, since the university’s broader endowment and foundation assets are largely restricted to specific donor-designated purposes.
Growing the scholarship pool also supports the university’s long-term enrollment strategy. USA currently enrolls about 15,000 students and has set a goal of reaching 20,000 within a decade, a target that depends heavily on the school’s ability to compete for top students with attractive financial aid packages.
Development officials say enhanced scholarships matter just as much as brand-new ones, since both directly address the university’s ability to recruit and retain higher-achieving students in a competitive regional market for four-year enrollment.
The matching campaign committee plans to keep raising money over the next five years, targeting a combined $25 million in new pledges that, once matched, would add up to a full $50 million boost to the university’s undergraduate scholarship endowment. Incoming freshmen who meet the university’s Presidential Scholarship requirements by the December application deadline are guaranteed an award under the current program, according to the university’s admissions office.