News by Topic: Gifts

RIT will use a substantial gift of real estate in Penfield to expand the university’s research and educational offerings in ecology, agriculture, sustainability and other fields. Amy Leenhouts Tait and Robert C. Tait have gifted to the university their 177-acre property, which will be dedicated as the Tait Preserve of RIT.

The Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship allows SOIS students to take time off of school to focus on personal business ventures while still working toward their degrees. Students in the fellowship also receive a $15,000 award to create the time and space needed to build their businesses.

An ambitious initiative along the Quarter Mile will transform RIT into a maker’s heaven, where the arts and technology converge and ideas percolate freely.

The month of November is traditionally a time to think about what you’re thankful for. On Nov. 15, the National Day of Philanthropy, RIT will spend the day celebrating its generous donors during the Day of Thanks.

The donation includes four premier and mid-tier ultrasound systems, transducers, simulators and related devices. The addition to the RIT sonography scanning suite enables students to practice on different models before beginning their clinical internships.

At an Oct. 29 celebration at RIT, E. Philip Saunders announced a $7.5 million gift to the business college that bears his name. This transformational gift will be used to help fund a major renovation and expansion of the facilities in Max Lowenthal Hall, home of Saunders College of Business.

Research is underway at RIT to create an app that will serve as a resource to help young mothers answer questions about raising a child, connect them with programs and resources, as well as foster a virtual parenting community.

Making addiction treatment and mental health services accessible to homeless people via TeleHealth is the focus of a federally funded program at RIT.

Continuing the university’s tradition of philanthropy, RIT is celebrating ROAR Day from midnight to midnight on Thursday, Oct. 3. ROAR Day is an annual day of giving that provides a unique opportunity for people to help support a specific area of the university that enriched their RIT experience.

RIT has received a $1.3 million gift to endow its partnership between the university and Genesee Country Village & Museum. The gift comes from RIT alumnus Philip Wehrheim and his wife, Anne. Wehrheim received a degree in business from RIT in 1966.

RIT had its second best year ever in sponsored research funding and a record year for research expenditures in fiscal year 2019. RIT received 366 new awards totaling $74 million in funding, and expenditures grew to $58 million.

NASA is awarding a team of researchers from RIT and Dartmouth College a grant to develop a detector capable of sensing and counting single photons that could be crucial to future NASA astrophysics missions. The extremely sensitive detector would allow scientists to see the faintest observable objects in space, such as Earth-like planets around other stars.