Help Do
More.
Investing in Impact
In 1945 John Motley Morehead established the first merit scholarship in the United States. His vision was to invest in those with the capacity for leadership so they could use their gifts to give back to University. And it is a vision that holds true today.
Although our Scholars make up a little over one percent of the undergraduate student body, they have had an exponential impact at Carolina. They are leaders: the current Student Body Vice President, the Student Attorney General, and the Honor Court Vice Chair. They bring academic prestige to UNC: 31 of the Carolina’s 49 Rhodes Scholars, the University’s first Gates Cambridge Scholar, 18 Truman Scholars, 21 of the UNC’s 28 Luce Scholars, and 27 Fulbright Scholars. And they leave legacies: founders of the Clef Hangers, the UNC Dance Marathon, Students for Students International, and the HOPE Community Garden in Chapel Hill, just to name a few.
Your gift to the Morehead-Cain Scholarship Fund is a gift to Carolina. And what better way to invest in this University than in the Program that has contributed so much to its leadership, prestige, community, and academic climate?
Challenges Facing Private Foundations
To meet our required annual distribution of five percent, and to keep pace with the rapidly rising costs of tuition, the Foundation must reach an annual 10 to 12 percent return on endowment to maintain our footing—a challenge in this economy.
The Rising Costs of Higher Education
The Foundation thrived for 50 years without seeking outside support thanks in part to superior investment returns from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, and because North Carolina state policy held both in-state and out-of-state tuition artificially low. But the 2000s brought serious budget concerns to the state, and tuition at Carolina rose—and continues to rise—in response. These factors, combined with vacillating investment returns, necessitated a change in the Foundation’s business model. In 2004, with the considerable support of Alumni and friends, we began to seek private support. The resulting fundraising dollars have had an immediate and profound impact—contributions in 2009 alone funded academic stipends for no fewer than 21 Scholars, helping us meet the realities of state budget cuts, tuition increases, and uncertain investment returns.
