University of Central Florida Foundation

Athletics expenses paid in support of the ucf athletics program provide student-athletes with a championship-level experience. The chargeon fund raises funds to ensure ucf's student-athletes continue to excel in competition, in the classroom, and in the community. As the knights prepared for their inaugural season in the big 12 conference, an anonymous donor made a gift of $5 million to ucf athletics at the start of 2023, helping to ensure that ucf's student-athletes will have the resources to unleash their full potential on a larger national scale. Since joining the big 12, donations have been setting records. For fiscal year 2023, private donations from ucf's major gift-giving group were up 44%. Ucf student-athletes have extended their record-setting streak in the classroom to 32 consecutive semesters with a department grade-point average of 3.0 or better including nine straight semesters with a 3.3 or higher mark. The knights compiled a combined 3.39 gpa in the 2023 fall semester, the second-highest semester gpa in program history. More than 75% of student-athletes posted a gpa of 3.0 or higher in the fall semester and 66 earned a 4.0 gpa.

Ucf is dedicated to enriching the lives of ucf students and solicits donations to support scholarships to benefit them. Scholarship funds are transferred to the University for administration and processing and are designed to reward, inspire and assist students in pursuing academic excellence and help attract a diverse student body. The fall 2023 freshman class had an average sat score of 1332 and an average high school gpa of 4.25. In addition, ucf set records for diversity in fall 2023 with 50.7% minority students and 29.2% hispanic students. Ucf is the largest University by enrollment in Florida with 69,320 students, including 59,548 undergraduates, 9,294 graduate students and 478 md students. Ucf ranks second among Florida's state universities with 346 national merit scholars enrolled and the six-year graduation rate is 75%. $110.7 million was awarded to bright futures students in fiscal year 2023. Seventy-two percent of undergraduates received financial aid, with a total of $544.7 million awarded. Sixty-eight percent of ftic (first time in college) students at ucf graduate without any educational debt; kiplinger and forbes rank ucf among the nation's best education values.

Academic expenses paid in support of the ucf programs include funding for academic programs, salaries for University employees and fellowships to reward some of ucf's most accomplished and promising students. Outstanding faculty inspire students, foster and enhance strong academic programs and serve as a key element to institutional excellence. Endowed chairs, eminent scholar positions and distinguished professorships are prestigious academic positions held by the University's most esteemed faculty and spending to support these positions helps the University maintain a high academic standard. Spending to support research projects and innovative programs further enriches the ucf learning experience. The ucf Foundation, Inc. closed its books at the end of june 2023 with $114,331,578 in gifts and commitments far exceeding the goal set by University leaders. This represented the support of more than 48,000 donors who gave 225,052 gifts. In addition, the endowment grew to $228 million, a $13 million increase over fiscal year 2022.

Other program services directly related to the Foundation's mission.