Exxon Gift Matching Program Provides $111,000 Gift

7-22-97
University Park, Pa.-Penn State has received more than $111,000 through a gift matching program from the Exxon Education Foundation. The funds represent the 1997 installment from the foundation's 3-to-1 match of gifts to the University by Exxon employees, retirees and surviving spouses.

This year's total of 73 gifts will support a variety of Penn State programs of the donors' choice. Since 1966, Exxon gifts to Penn State have totaled more than $4 million.

Through the overall gift matching program, individual donations of up to $5,000 each year are matched at the 3-to-1 ratio for institutions in the United States with which the donors have an affiliation. The foundation established the program in 1962 to encourage individual giving to higher education, and has provided more than $170 million to more than 1,000 institutions.

In April, the foundation announced that this year's $13.5 million in unrestricted grants to 885 colleges and universities means the foundation has the largest such program nationally for the third year in a row. Overall, the Texas-based foundation has given more than $443 million in support of American education since its founding in 1955.

**gwc**

Contact:
Gary Cramer,814 863-4512 (office), e-mail gwc104@psu.edu