The Helen Diller Family Foundation has granted $500 million to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), with $200 million of that total supporting student scholarships at the university’s school of dentistry as well as its schools of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. It is the largest single donation in UCSF history and one of the largest ever to a university in the United States.
“My mother was dedicated to UCSF, and to many other programs aimed at improving the lives and well-being of others through education, science, and the arts. I know this latest gift would be enormously gratifying to her,” said Jackie Safier, daughter of the late Helen Diller, president of the Helen Diller Family Foundation, and a member of the UCSF Foundation Board of Overseers.
The donation increases the amount of funding available for scholarships at UCSF’s quartet of professional schools, all ranked among the nation’s best, by 150%. UCSF reports that the funds will allow many students, including first-generation college students, to graduate with a minimal amount of debt and give them the freedom to pursue life-changing work in their communities.
Also, $200 million of the total will create a stream of faculty support in perpetuity, with $100 million used to retain current professors and recruit preeminent faculty, and $100 million used to provide startup money for the Helen Diller Faculty Scholars program for early and mid-career scientists. The final $100 million will be used to launch the Innovation Fund, which will be discretionary so UCSF leadership can respond rapidly to changes in the health sciences.
Diller was known as a philanthropist, advocate, and mentor in the UCSF community. Previous donations from her eponymous foundation have funded the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and totaled more than $150 million, including a $35 million donation to support construction of the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building. The new donation increases UCSF endowment, currently standing at $2.25 billion, by nearly 18%.
“It is a privilege to be surrounded each day by people who are so incredibly driven, focused, and collaborative, and Helen Diller truly understood this,” said UCSF chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. “She knew that the excellence of our people is what makes UCSF such a remarkable place, and I am honored to help steward this gift in support of Helen’s vision.”
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