Each of UC's 2,600 endowment funds has its own story and makes its own impact. Each one supports a specific scholarship, professorship, research project, or other program; and, ultimately, UC’s mission.
From helping a student afford to attend college, to sponsoring a lecture series that inspires a future career, to developing a life-saving drug, to exonerating an innocent life...their missions are varied and their stories and impacts reach far and wide; and it's the privilege of the Investment Office to work ambitiously day-by-day to drive investment gains in order to maximize those impacts.
Two programs we're particularly proud to support through the endowment are the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) and the Gen-1 Impact House. These programs are making an immeasurable impact thanks, in part, to the perpetual gifts which helped to establish and continue to provide funds for each endeavor.
The goal of the Ohio Innocence Project is to exonerate every wrongly-convicted Ohioan. Harnessing the energy and intellect of UC law students as its driving force, OIP seeks to identify inmates in Ohio prisons who are actually innocent of the crimes they were convicted of committing. Since its founding in 2003, the Ohio Innocence Project has helped 42 individuals obtain their long-sought freedom.
We are their last hope. Someone to advocate and believe in them and fight for them when no one else will.
Mallorie Thomas Former OIP Fellow
Gen-1 is a groundbreaking UC program and the nation's first living-learning community to focus on first-generation college students. The Gen-1 Program was established in 2008 and is a living and learning community that shepherds Pell-eligible, 1st generation college students helping to ensure academic success through high-intensity advising, academic courses, and co-curricular experiences. One such measure of success is Gen-1's 92% 1st-to-2nd-year retention rate — well above the national rate of 62%.
October 12, 2026
The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine awards its highest honor, the 2026 Daniel Drake Medal, to three leaders in transplantation medicine, rare lung disease and heart health.
October 9, 2026
A University of Cincinnati researcher has received a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to conduct research during the next five years. Natalie Kreitzer, MD, a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine physician-researcher, received an R01 independent research grant from the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The funding will support a test program for caregivers of patients with traumatic brain injury, as reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier.
October 6, 2026
University of Cincinnati emergency medicine physician Natalie Kreitzer, MD, received a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant to lead a clinical trial testing a wellness program for family caregivers of traumatic brain injury patients.
September 29, 2026
A partnership between the University of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati Foundation is expanding scholarship support for Ohio students.
September 28, 2026
The Charles L. Shor Foundation has made a nearly $4 million gift supporting patients at the University of Cincinnati Health Epilepsy Center at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UC.
September 10, 2026
For Dan Asimus, MD, Med ’72, as the founder of Life Fitness Center, Inc., a private health clinic specializing in integrative medicine—education and whole-person care have been the foundation of his life’s work.