Nebraska Business Thompson Endowed Chairs

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11/23/2020 Added

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Jim and Georgia Thompson's gift set in motion a series of matches to support Nebraska Business.

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[00:00:00.174](soft guitar music)
[00:00:03.339]When Jim and Georgia Thompson
[00:00:05.040]heard we wanted to establish six endowed chairs,
[00:00:08.570]they knew it would take the College of Business
[00:00:10.570]to the next level.
[00:00:12.290]They generously provided a 2.5-million matching gift
[00:00:15.890]with the goal of establishing a community of givers
[00:00:19.040]to support faculty and the first five endowed chairs.
[00:00:22.920]There are those institutions, those nonprofits
[00:00:29.450]that in order for them to succeed and to move forward
[00:00:33.090]and to build and grow, they need the support of people.
[00:00:37.170]Well, right away when you're out of college,
[00:00:38.640]you're so busy just trying to earn a living
[00:00:40.620]and make ends meet, but after a while,
[00:00:43.420]if you're fortunate enough to move along
[00:00:45.010]and you have a good living,
[00:00:48.860]then you start to see it's important
[00:00:50.690]that this is part of our lives to give back.
[00:00:53.570]What this gift can do for faculty
[00:00:56.240]is it allows them to attract higher-caliber professors,
[00:01:00.060]which is really key.
[00:01:01.290]And it does make it much more attractive
[00:01:03.560]for those professors to come to the University of Nebraska
[00:01:06.450]and the business school.
[00:01:07.560]It became clear that faculty support
[00:01:11.351]was paramount in the minds of being able to take
[00:01:15.690]the next step of the educational journey
[00:01:18.580]for the School of Business.
[00:01:19.990]So, that really prompted us to get pretty curious
[00:01:24.480]about what we may be able to do to be helpful in that way.
[00:01:28.490]The matching element of our gift
[00:01:31.910]was something that we had done ourselves
[00:01:34.770]in other venues, other places.
[00:01:37.620]So, we knew that a gift would be important from us
[00:01:40.710]in a direct sense.
[00:01:42.760]But building a school is about a community
[00:01:45.510]and we've now created a community of givers
[00:01:48.360]that are able to watch this school, benefit from the gift
[00:01:53.420]and be a part of the gift.
[00:01:55.380]That's what makes this gift truly special,
[00:01:57.970]the magic of matching.
[00:02:00.100]Jim and Georgia donated half the funds
[00:02:02.560]for million-dollar endowments five times over.
[00:02:06.400]The Thompsons also allowed the matching donors
[00:02:08.960]to name their chair they helped fund.
[00:02:11.450]Each of their stories of why they gave back
[00:02:13.810]revolve around gratitude and the role the university played
[00:02:17.760]in their lives.
[00:02:19.320]We have the University of Nebraska in our blood.
[00:02:22.940]In fact, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother,
[00:02:26.700]my two uncles on my side, on Jennifer's side,
[00:02:31.810]her mother, her father, her brother, her...
[00:02:34.700]I mean, we have multi, multi-generation families
[00:02:39.030]going here to the University of Nebraska.
[00:02:41.750]And I think the reason that we really wanted to support
[00:02:44.680]the endowed chair was the fact that the Thompsons
[00:02:48.070]were so generous and primed the pump.
[00:02:50.900]It's really almost that easy.
[00:02:52.700]I mean, sometimes when you're thinking about things
[00:02:56.240]that you have an interest in or a passion in
[00:02:58.340]that you maybe wanna support,
[00:03:01.410]maybe there's a threshold, maybe there's some barrier,
[00:03:03.390]maybe you just didn't even really think about it
[00:03:04.817]and you needed somebody to kind of give you
[00:03:07.810]a little boost in the back to think about how and what
[00:03:12.810]you might do to really make a difference.
[00:03:17.070]Well, if you don't give back, (chuckles)
[00:03:21.140]you're certainly not showing appreciation.
[00:03:23.980]And there are so many people that have helped me
[00:03:27.300]throughout my life.
[00:03:28.570]I'm very grateful.
[00:03:30.510]The endowed chair is just a bit of a surprise.
[00:03:35.639]And I encouraged the bank and they got along so well
[00:03:41.730]that we could do that financially.
[00:03:46.540]But it's a landmark.
[00:03:50.510]It's another way of saying thanks for the memories.
[00:03:54.920]And I'm proud of this university. This is my university.
[00:03:58.420]My grandmother graduated here in 1906, my dad in 1944,
[00:04:03.070]various cousins, uncles, aunts.
[00:04:06.900]I have a cousin that was a offensive tackle
[00:04:10.070]on the football team in the '70s.
[00:04:12.840]It's our family and the State of Nebraska is our family.
[00:04:17.210]And I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.
[00:04:21.940]It was kind of happenstance.
[00:04:23.320]I had been thinking about doing an endowed chair
[00:04:27.257]and so the cash was there.
[00:04:29.520]And with Jim and Georgia Thompson doing what they did,
[00:04:35.330]it was a no brainer.
[00:04:36.460]I mean, how could you not do it?
[00:04:38.450]And I felt very lucky to be able to do that
[00:04:40.600]and be part of that and be part of this university this way
[00:04:43.560]and leave something here.
[00:04:45.020]And then to be able to name it after my family,
[00:04:47.070]it's not mine, it's for my family who has really gotten
[00:04:51.410]so much from the state and hopefully has given a lot back.
[00:04:54.690]So, it's awesome.
[00:04:57.470]Go big or red.
[00:04:59.280]The reason I did the endowed chair,
[00:05:01.740]I thought for a long time I wanted to do something
[00:05:04.320]to share back with the college that I had enjoyed so much.
[00:05:10.150]And I wanted to do something that would make a difference,
[00:05:14.880]and I decided that the thing that matters the most
[00:05:18.330]is having a wonderful faculty.
[00:05:20.930]Then at the same time, realized that in my life,
[00:05:25.160]I have been the first in a lot of the positions
[00:05:27.570]I've been in.
[00:05:28.403]There weren't very many women in law school when I started
[00:05:31.090]and I was the first woman on tenure track
[00:05:33.420]in the law firm I went with.
[00:05:35.200]The first one offered partnership,
[00:05:37.120]which I turned down to move to Nebraska,
[00:05:39.310]but first woman commissioner
[00:05:41.850]of the Banking and Finance Department in Nebraska
[00:05:45.617]and the first business dean at the University of Nebraska.
[00:05:49.410]I realized there were no chairs then named after women,
[00:05:53.690]and I thought, "That's what I should do.
[00:05:56.060]I should name it."
[00:05:56.900]I normally wouldn't put my name out there,
[00:05:59.810]but I wanted to do it so the women students
[00:06:02.750]would be encouraged that there are other women
[00:06:05.430]that have had business careers.
[00:06:07.650]Through Jim and Georgia Thompson's insight
[00:06:10.020]and thoughtful planning, we were successful
[00:06:12.600]in funding their five matching endowed chairs
[00:06:15.440]as well as our final sixth chair in less than two years.
[00:06:20.120]All of us at the College of Business are grateful
[00:06:22.700]to all of our generous donors
[00:06:24.280]who helped us continue to lead the future of business.
[00:06:27.882](melancholic music)

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Nebraska Business Thompson Endowed Chairs

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