Posted on November 12, 2012

University of Missouri Receives $30 Million From Reynolds Foundation

The University of Missouri has announced a $30 million gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to create a permanent endowment in support of its journalism institute.

The gift, which boosts to $76 million the total awarded by the foundation to the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at MU, will establish a permanent funding stream to support the ongoing activities of the institute, which seeks to strengthen journalism through experimentation and research programs. In 2004, the foundation provided more than $31 million to build a home for the institute, and it awarded an additional $15 million five years later to support its operations through June 2015.

"This endowment ensures that the Reynolds Institute will benefit future generations of citizens with its groundbreaking work on new methods and models of journalism," said MU chancellor Brady Deaton. "We will forever be in debt to the Reynolds Foundation for enabling the university to launch and now make permanent this world-class center of research and service."

The Las Vegas-based Reynolds Foundation was established by Donald W. Reynolds, founder of the Donrey Media Group, in 1954. Since then, the foundation has awarded more than $145 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in Arkansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, and elsewhere working to advance the field of journalism or cardiovascular clinic research and geriatrics training.

"I know if he was here today he would be proud to have his name associated with the Reynolds Journalism Institute," said Reynolds Foundation chair Fred W. Smith. "This grant will help preserve that relationship into perpetuity."