Guide to Giving

Ways to Give

Gifts to the College of Law can be funded by cash, securities, or an IRA.

Planned Giving

Gifts may be made by beneficiary designation, which include retirement fund assets and life insurance. Gifts may also provide income, which includes charitable gift annuity

Type of Funds

Endowment Fund

An endowment will exist in perpetuity. It allows the donor the opportunity to name the fund and set the criteria and restrictions for use. The minimum donation is $50,000 payable over five years. The fund can be used to impact a specific or area within the College of Law or create a scholarship fund. Based on past market returns, an endowment will provide a 4.5% payout each year. The fund will continue to grow while invested and increase payout over the years.

Demand Fund

A demand fund allows donors the opportunity to name the fund and set criteria and restrictions for use. The minimum donation is $10,000 payable over five years. A demand fund is cash account and not an endowment. It can be used to impact a specific program or area within the College of Law or create a scholarship fund.

Annual Fund

Annual funds include money raised on an ongoing basis and are generally unrestricted. These funds allow the College of Law flexibility on use.

Areas of Need

Scholarships

Scholarships may be funded using endowment or demand funds. WVU Law provides over $3 million of financial assistance to students per year.

Fellowships

A fellow or staff attorney is generally a nine-month position that assists a faculty member in a particular subject area and supports a center, a clinic, or a specialized subject area of the law. Fellows or staff attorneys can perform a variety of roles, including but not limited to, teaching a course, supervising students in a clinic or experiential learning setting, or assisting with scholarship and research in a particular area. Estimated cost yearly is $60,000.

Clinic Support

The College of Law has nine legal clinics. Supervised by law professors, the clinics serve the public while exposing students to all phases of lawyering, including drafting briefs, trial advocacy, negotiating, and interviewing. WVU’s clinical law program provides, on average, more than 40,000 hours of pro bono legal aid per year.

Adjunct Support

Adjuncts are current practitioners in the legal community who teach part-time. Most adjunct classes are 2 or 3 credits. The College of Law pays $2000 per credit.

Public Interest Advocates

The PIA program sponsors summer public interest fellowships that permit first and second year law students to work in the offices of public interest law firms throughout the state. Students work fulltime for ten weeks and earn a stipend of $5500. PIA also awards post-graduate fellowships. Recipients are awarded $50,000 for one year fellowships.

Professorships

Professorships aid in the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty by generating income for salary supplements and teaching/research support. An endowed professorship is a minimum donation of $1 million.

Programmatic Endowments or Demand Funds

The College of Law greatly benefits from special programmatic funds. These funds can support programs such as the academic and bar passage support activities happening in the Academic Excellence Center and the Writing Center. Funds can also benefit any number of co-curricular programs, such as Moot Court, Law Review, or Mock Trial, or can assist the law school in providing students with tools to access and master the most recent technological advances in the practice of law.

Recognition of Donors

Dean's Partners

This program honors alumni and friends who support the WVU College of Law by contributing $5,000 in one fiscal year. Dean’s Partners are honored at an annual gala. Donors names are also prominently displayed the College of Law lobby.