About University of Wisconsin Foundation
The University of Wisconsin Foundation is the official fundraising and gift-receiving organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other donor-designated units of the UW System. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, total gifts received by the Foundation since 1945 now stand at more than $2.41 billion. The Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization, which raises funds and receives gifts for the UW-Madison. An elected board of directors oversees its assets and activities. The Foundation works closely with the University to determine and support fundraising priorities. Established in 1945 by a small group of loyal volunteers, the UW Foundation was one of three organizations created by visionary UW alumni working to ensure a productive future for the University of Wisconsin. The other members of the trio included the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA), established 80 years earlier to maintain contact with far-flung graduates, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), created in 1925 to assist in patenting and licensing technology created by UW scientists and researchers. The Foundation completed the threesome to encourage a growing practice of making gifts to the University. The University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation (UWMF) is the clinical practice organization for the faculty physicians of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the largest academic, multi-specialty physician group in Wisconsin. UWMF provides clinical sites, technical and professional staff and administrative services to UW faculty physicians. The organization is dedicated to helping those physicians meet the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s missions of quality patient care, medical education and research.