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University of Windsor
Donors step up to exceed cap on matching funds for scholarships
When Dennis DesRosiers chaired the investment committee of the UWindsor Board of Governors, he saw first-hand the value of endowment funds. This week, he made his own investment—a $25,000 donation toward scholarships for students of the auto industry.
"Management is key to success in any business," said DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. "We will need to nurture our most talented if Canada hopes to be competitive on the world stage."
His is the latest in a series of contributions that have helped the University of Windsor exceed its limit on matching funds from the provincial government for endowed scholarships and bursaries. The Ontario Trust for Student Support had pegged Windsor's 2009/10 ceiling for matching funds at $819,490, but John Bergholz, vice-president university advancement, hopes the province will match contributions over that amount.
"We broke through that ceiling by January and have until March 31 to report our totals," he said. "It is our hope that the OTSS will match everything and then we start again for the next year. This is an ongoing effort to substantially increase our scholarship support."
Bergholz said President Alan Wildeman identified scholarship support as a key focus for University Advancement's fundraising, and the personal commitment of a prominent graduate like DesRosiers (BA 1974) was a catalyst to action.
"Our team made it a goal to ramp up our solicitation efforts and make our case for support to take advantage of the provincial matching money," he said. "The result was that alumni and friends on campus and throughout Windsor-Essex, as well as others across Canada and the world, responded. Our fall phonathon was up 29 percent in donations received and our number of donors jumped 12 percent.
DesRosiers' gift brings his endowment contributions to date to $35,000—with provincial matching, the scholarship fund totals $70,000.
UWindsor President Alan Wildeman accepts a donation from Dennis DesRosiers towards scholarships for students of automotive studies, Tuesday in the Odette School of Business.