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Bright Foundation Recognized by UNI Foundation

Bright Foundation Recognized by UNI Foundation as a 2023 President’s Philanthropy Award Winner

On Fri­day, Decem­ber 17, 2023, the H. Dale and Lois Bright Foun­da­tion was hon­ored to be rec­og­nized as the Corporate/​Foundation 2023 President’s Phil­an­thropy Award Win­ner by the Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Iowa Foun­da­tion. Mered­ith Dohmen, Bright Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent, and Thomas Press, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor and Chair­man of the Bright Foun­da­tion Board of Direc­tors, attend­ed the Dis­tin­guished Awards Cel­e­bra­tion held on the UNI cam­pus to accept the award. This award is pre­sent­ed annu­al­ly to a cor­po­ra­tion, foun­da­tion, or orga­ni­za­tion that has demon­strat­ed gen­eros­i­ty to UNI through sig­nif­i­cant lead­er­ship giv­ing, ded­i­cat­ed long-term ser­vice, and assis­tance to UNI stu­dents and fac­ul­ty through recruit­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and/​or pro­gram­ming sup­port.

Since its found­ing in 1957 by Lois and H. Dale Bright, the Bright Foun­da­tion has proud­ly fol­lowed its founders’ for­mu­la for suc­cess of ​“work hard, save care­ful­ly, invest wise­ly, and give back when you can.” With these val­ues at its heart, over the years the Foun­da­tion has qui­et­ly con­tributed mil­lions of dol­lars to Iowa orga­ni­za­tions, char­i­ties, and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions with the goal of build­ing a brighter future for young Iowans.  

In 2012, the Foun­da­tion estab­lished the Bright Schol­ars of Iowa award and began its phil­an­thropic rela­tion­ship with UNI, as well as Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty and Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa, by fund­ing one recip­i­ent at each school. The award was designed to make high­er edu­ca­tion at the Iowa regent uni­ver­si­ties pos­si­ble for tal­ent­ed young Iowans who may not oth­er­wise have the finan­cial means to obtain a col­lege edu­ca­tion. These renew­able schol­ar­ships cov­er the full cost of atten­dance for four years. 

Since then, the Foun­da­tion has increased the num­ber of new awards avail­able annu­al­ly and added two more schol­ar­ship pro­grams, the Lois Dale Bright Schol­ar­ship and the Bright Schol­ars Per­sis­tence Award. Through the three pro­grams, a total of 30 – 40 new recip­i­ents are now award­ed annu­al­ly. The Foun­da­tion is proud to pro­vide fund­ing and sup­port for over 150 cur­rent schol­ars across the three state uni­ver­si­ties and a net­work of over 200 alum­ni.  

2023 marks 10 years of the Bright Foundation’s ded­i­ca­tion and sup­port to Bright Schol­ars at UNI, ISU, and Iowa. Dur­ing that time, the Bright Foun­da­tion has pro­vid­ed over $14 mil­lion in schol­ar­ships at the regent uni­ver­si­ties so that recip­i­ents can grad­u­ate on-time, debt-free, pre­pared to launch their career, and give back in some way. At UNI alone, the Bright Foun­da­tion has proud­ly made a last­ing impact and has pro­vid­ed fund­ing for 94 Bright Schol­ars. Dur­ing this 2023 – 24 school year, 41 UNI stu­dents are receiv­ing a schol­ar­ship fund­ed by the Bright Foun­da­tion.  

Now in its 11th year of sup­port­ing and bright­en­ing the future of tal­ent­ed young Iowans, the Bright Foun­da­tion is hon­ored and thank­ful for this dis­tin­guished recog­ni­tion by the UNI Foun­da­tion. The Bright Foun­da­tion looks for­ward to the on-going col­lab­o­ra­tion with UNI for years to come as we con­tin­ue this lega­cy of invest­ing in and sup­port­ing young, bright Iowa stu­dents to achieve their dreams and become future lead­ers. For more infor­ma­tion about the Bright Foun­da­tion and its con­tri­bu­tions over the years, fol­low us on social media @brightiowa. To learn more about this award, vis­it: https://​foun​da​tion​.uni​.edu/​c​o​r​p​o​r​a​t​e​-​a​n​d​-​f​o​u​n​d​a​t​i​o​n​-​award

Thanks for check­ing out our 2023 Bright Sym­po­sium! Stayed tuned for more spot­lights to come on our News & Events page, as well as oth­er updates!
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