Endowments

Endowing a school represents a rare and enduring opportunity to create lasting institutional strength—providing permanent resources, attracting visionary leaders, empowering deans to advance strategic priorities, and shaping the future of Roanoke College through one of only four highly limited naming opportunities.

• Endowing a school is one of the most powerful and enduring commitments a donor can make, providing permanent resources that strengthen academic leadership, elevate student experiences, and secure long‑term institutional excellence. Nationally, endowed positions are recognized as essential to attracting visionary leaders, supporting innovation, and ensuring stability in a rapidly changing educational landscape. At Roanoke, the opportunity is even more significant: only four endowed school‑level naming opportunities exist. Each one represents a rare chance to shape the direction of an entire academic division, empowering its dean to advance strategic priorities, recruit exceptional faculty, and champion transformative initiatives. Because these opportunities are so limited, securing one is not only a meaningful personal legacy—it is a defining investment in the future of the College.

Endowing a deanship—one of only four such opportunities at Roanoke—creates a permanent legacy that honors exceptional academic leadership, fuels strategic and innovative work, strengthens the recruitment and retention of distinguished faculty, and secures lasting excellence for the College, making it a rare and transformative investment for those able to act while these limited naming opportunities remain.

• Endowed deanships stand among the highest distinctions a college can bestow—reserved for leaders whose vision, scholarship, and service elevate the entire institution. At Roanoke, naming a dean is both a rare honor and a powerful investment in the College’s future. Only four such opportunities exist, each representing a permanent commitment to academic excellence and to the individuals who guide our faculty, shape our programs, and steward the intellectual life of the College.
• By endowing a deanship, donors secure enduring support for strategic initiatives, innovative teaching, and the recruitment and retention of exceptional academic leaders. A named deanship becomes a lasting legacy—one that strengthens Roanoke today and for generations to come. Because these opportunities are so limited, those wishing to make a transformative impact are encouraged to act while these few remaining naming opportunities are still available.

Professorships are endowed gifts that honor Roanoke’s most exceptional tenured faculty by recognizing their highest‑quality teaching and scholarship.

• Professorships honor the career contributions of tenured faculty members to the College whose work is of the highest quality. Professorships are often funded through endowment gifts from individuals who wish to recognize some of the College’s foremost teachers and scholars.

Endowing a head coach creates a lasting source of leadership and competitive strength for a designated Maroon Athletics team by funding the coaching stability, recruiting, training resources, and strategic vision needed to build championship‑caliber programs, making it a transformative, enduring investment in student‑athlete success.

• Endowing a head coach provides one of the most powerful and lasting ways to strengthen Maroon Athletics. Unlike general programmatic support, a coaching endowment directly fuels the leadership, stability, and long‑term competitive success of a team. An endowed head coach ensures that our student‑athletes benefit from consistent, high‑level coaching and the strategic vision required to build—and sustain—championship‑caliber programs.
• Funds generated through a coaching endowment may support essential priorities such as recruiting, enhanced training resources, postseason or international competition, and other team‑advancing initiatives identified by the coach. Donors may designate a specific sport to receive this investment, creating a permanent source of strength for the team they care about most.
• By endowing a head coach, donors make a transformative commitment that elevates the student‑athlete experience, secures the future of a program, and leaves a legacy that endures for generations.

Program endowments provide flexible, long‑term funding that faculty and deans can use for equipment, materials, professional development, travel, and student research.

• Program endowment support directly enhances a college program. In collaboration with the Dean, faculty can utilize these funds for the purchase of needed equipment or materials, professional development, travel or to promote student research and discovery.

Faculty fellowships provide endowed support for professors pursuing major new teaching or research initiatives by offering resources such as stipends, release time, equipment, training, or travel, helping the College retain exceptional scholars while allowing donors to invest permanently in a specific discipline or in outstanding faculty across the arts and sciences.

• Advancement of knowledge is one of the primary responsibilities of a college professor. Fellowships support the teaching and research of professors who undertake major new initiatives or whose work shows extraordinary promise. Stipends may provide partial salary support, classroom release time, equipment, professional training and development and/or travel funds to enhance teaching expertise. By encouraging these individuals to persist in their fields of study, fellowships become an important means of retaining valued faculty members and supporting productive scholarship. Donors who are committed to a particular field or discipline can endow a fellowship in that area of study if the position is a priority for the College or create a fellowship that can be filled from outstanding faculty across the arts and sciences.

A Dean’s Fund for Excellence is a rare, high‑impact endowment that gives a dean flexible, immediate resources to advance urgent priorities, seize emerging opportunities, and strengthen academic programs—creating a permanent source of agility and innovation for one of Roanoke’s four schools.

• A Dean’s Fund for Excellence represents one of the most strategic and flexible investments a donor can make in Roanoke’s academic future. Established to provide unrestricted resources directly to a Dean—these funds empower academic leaders to act swiftly and decisively in support of their school’s most urgent priorities.
• Because academic disciplines evolve rapidly, the ability to respond in real time is invaluable. A Dean’s Fund for Excellence allows the dean to seize emerging opportunities, support innovative teaching and research, strengthen student experiences, and ensure their programs remain at the forefront of their fields. This is catalytic funding—nimble, immediate, and deeply impactful.
• Only four such funds exist, making each one an exceptionally rare opportunity to shape the academic trajectory of the College. Donors who endow a Dean’s Fund for Excellence create a permanent source of strength and adaptability, ensuring that Roanoke’s schools can advance boldly and meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Scholarships are transformative investments that provide vital financial access to a Roanoke education while creating a lasting, personal legacy that honors loved ones and ensures student talent—not financial circumstance—defines who becomes a Maroon.

• A scholarship is one of the most meaningful and life‑changing investments a donor can make in a student’s future. By providing essential support for tuition and fees, scholarships open the door for one or more students each year to pursue a Roanoke education—an opportunity that may otherwise be out of reach. These funds play a vital role in helping the College recruit and retain the most promising, high‑achieving students, ensuring that talent and potential—not financial circumstance—determine who becomes a Maroon.
• For many donors, establishing a scholarship is also a deeply personal act. It offers a lasting way to honor a family member, mentor, or someone whose belief in education shaped their own life. A named scholarship becomes a permanent legacy, linking the donor’s story to the success of generations of Roanoke students.

Roanoke College fulfills its mission of preparing students for responsible lives of learning, service, and leadership by connecting classroom learning with reflective, hands-on experiential opportunities such as research, internships, service-learning, study away, and creative work that transform student growth.

• Roanoke College’s overall mission is to prepare students for responsible lives of learning, service and leadership by promoting their intellectual, ethical, spiritual and personal growth. A key component to fulfilling this mission is forging a deliberate connection between knowledge gained in the classroom and experiences designed to put that knowledge into practice.
• Though experience itself is valuable, when set in a larger context of reflection, experience can be transformative. As such, Roanoke College seeks to transform the lives of our students through experiential learning opportunities which include undergraduate research, internships, service-learning, study away and creative works.

A programmatic athletic endowment provides flexible, broad-based support for a specific team or priority, funding needs such as travel, equipment, recruiting, and overall team support.

• Programmatic endowment serves the Athletic Department and individual teams well in that it tends to be broad-based and designated to the highest program priority. Funds may be used for postseason, invitational or international team travel, equipment purchases, recruiting expenses and general team support. A particular sport or team may be designated as recipient of the funds.

Roanoke College is prioritizing the growth of endowed scholarships—led by President Frank Shushok Jr. and the President’s 25—to close a critical financial aid gap, reduce student debt, and expand access for middle- and lower-income families.

• Roanoke College’s future depends on expanding endowed student financial aid, a critical need given that only $3.6 million of the more than $36 million awarded annually comes from endowment proceeds. This gap places significant strain on the College and limits its ability to support talented students—many of whom graduate with substantial debt, averaging $36,000 in 2024. To address this challenge and reduce the cost of attendance for middle‑ and lower‑income families, President Frank Shushok Jr. has made growing endowed scholarships his top philanthropic priority.
• To build momentum, President Shushok created the President’s 25, a leadership group of donors committed to giving $5,000 or more annually for five years to support endowed student scholarships. These individuals are setting the pace for a broader movement and are asked to champion the importance of student financial aid within the Roanoke community. The question now is who will join them in shaping the future of the College and transforming the lives of its students.