Good afternoon.

The UT Foundation Board of Directors held its fall meeting this morning. I hope that many of you were able to watch the meeting and learn more about the UTFI Board of Directors and their role in our organization. We had a full agenda today and I would like to take this time to update you on key items.

I presented our outcomes from fiscal year 2021, as well as our goals for fiscal year 2022. In addition, I had the opportunity to share trends from the last decade, highlighting the positive outcomes from the Foundation structure change in 2011. These trends include 56 percent growth in our 10-year fundraising average, a 21 percent decrease in our dependency on university support and a 49 percent increase in the Foundation’s return on investment.

Finance Committee chair Greg Cox presented the final fiscal year 2022 budget, which was approved by the Board of Directors. The draft budget was presented and approved during the June 2021 meeting.

Additionally, the Board of Directors approved two items that will impact the Foundation.

The first of those is a funding approval for the Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) solution. The Foundation has been in a year-long evaluation process that used a comprehensive needs analysis, vendor demonstrations, and feedback from peer institutions and key stakeholders. Through this thorough evaluation, UTFI leadership and evaluation committee selected a preferred CRM solution and implementation partner. Today, the Board approved a withdrawal from the Foundation’s general operating reserve, not to exceed $3.5 million, to fund the CRM replacement design and implementation investment.

The second item was the approval of concepts and elements from the staff compensation plan. The independent analysis and extensive market assessment by Pearl Meyer, an advisory partner hired by UT Foundation, resulted in recommendations for staff compensation to ensure competitiveness and alignment with the organizational mission.

Through the implementation of these recommendations, the Foundation will revise the salary structure for all positions and implement an incentive compensation plan to measure and reward organizational and individual outcomes for all positions beginning in fiscal year 2023. Staff will receive more detailed information on the incentive compensation plan in early 2022.

The next meeting of the UTFI Board of Directors is June 9-10, 2022, in Knoxville.