Planned Giving
What is Planned Giving? | How Do Planned Gifts Help GovState?
Education is fundamental to everyday life—elevating individuals, enriching households, and transforming communities. At Governors State University (GovState), we believe that an exceptional, accessible education equips our students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead in a global society.
As the landscape of higher education evolves, traditional funding cycles are becoming increasingly unpredictable. Planned giving is integral to our institutional sustainability, serving as the unshakeable bedrock of GovState's future. By designating the Governors State University Foundation in your estate plans, you insulate our core mission from economic shifts and ever-changing state allocations, creating a permanent pipeline of opportunity. This forward-thinking stewardship ensures that academic excellence and transformational opportunities remain permanent fixtures for generations to come.
Who Can Give? | A Collective Vision for Chicago’s Southland
Anyone can leave a legacy. At GovState, our vibrant network of alumni, dedicated friends, and community members has built a diverse collective of donors who make our most vital local causes possible. Whether you are a proud graduate giving back to the department that shaped your career or a neighbor who values the cultural and economic vitality of our region, your planned gift can be tailored to align with your personal financial goals and philanthropic passions.
When you invest in the future of GovState, you support a multi-generational anchor institution that shapes the entire Southland community. Your legacy has the power to permanently sustain our university’s most vital public-facing programs:
Keeping the stage lights bright at the Center for Performing Arts, ensuring world-class cultural experiences and youth arts access remain affordable for local families.
Providing a permanent foundation for equity, community healing, and vital civic resources through the Social Justice Initiative and the Legal Clinic.
Advancing critical early education, childcare resources, and parental support systems at the Family Development Center.
Igniting curiosity and opening future career pathways for local middle and high school students through the Jaguar Youth Camps, including our high-demand STEAM Camp and the College of Health & Human Services’ Health Camp.
By aligning your personal estate planning with GovState’s core mission, you turn your personal values into an enduring covenant—protecting today's campus innovations and empowering tomorrow's trailblazers.
Planned Giving & The Legacy Society at Governors State University
Find out more about planned giving in our brochure.
Gift Designations | Shaping the Future of GovState
When planning your legacy, you have the power to decide how your generosity will shape the future of Governors State University. Some donors choose to make an Unrestricted Gift, which provides the university with the ultimate flexibility to address our highest-need areas and emerging campus priorities as they arise.
However, many donors prefer to establish a Designated Gift, directing their support to a specific area of campus that aligns with their personal passions, values, or memories. Whether inspired by your own student journey or a desire to uplift a particular field of study, your planned gift ensures that the programs you care about most will thrive for generations to come.
Colleges & Schools
Perhaps you graduated from one of GovState’s academic colleges—or like many of our proud alumni, even earned two degrees here! As you review your estate plans and reflect on the moments that shaped your life's trajectory, a planned gift is the perfect way to ground your legacy and pay it forward to the next generation of Jaguars.
Fuel intellectual curiosity, creative expression, and critical inquiry. Your gift can provide the vital retention scholarships and completion support that ensure our arts, humanities, and sciences students persist from enrollment to graduation.
Invest in the frontline champions of our communities. A planned gift here strengthens the future of local education, counseling, and family systems by providing permanent resources for student-teacher stipends and advanced clinical training.
Protect the wellness and vital infrastructure of our region. Your legacy can directly fund modern lab equipment, clinical training simulation spaces, and specialized scholarships for future nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and communication disorder professionals.
Empower the next wave of Southland entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and economic innovators. Legacy gifts support cutting-edge business technology, global marketplace readiness, and mentorship pipelines for future executives.
Advance the boundaries of academic research and specialized leadership. Supporting this college ensures that master’s and doctoral scholars have the advanced fellowships, research grants, and resources necessary to tackle complex societal challenges.
Cultivate our most academically ambitious and civic-minded student leaders. Gifts to the Honors College endow prestigious merit scholarships, fund undergraduate research presentations, and support transformative experiential learning opportunities.
Break down traditional educational barriers for lifelong learners. Legacy commitments fund non-traditional adult scholarships, workforce credentialing, and vibrant community outreach initiatives—including the safe, enriching spaces of our Jaguar Youth Camps.
Athletics
Fueling the Pride of the Jaguars
Governors State University Athletics cultivates true student-athletes—driving excellence in the classroom, in local civic service, and on the court and field. By designating a legacy gift to Athletics, you help provide our teams with the resources needed to compete at the highest levels. Your support can fund athletic scholarships, facility enhancements, state-of-the-art training equipment, and leadership development programs that empower our Jaguars to champion victory in sport and in life.
The Alumni Association
Sustaining a Lifelong Network of Success
GovState’s Alumni Association keeps our community of over 50,000 graduates connected, supported, and engaged long after they leave the classroom. Naming the Alumni Association in your estate plans creates a permanent foundation to expand alumni networking, fund legacy scholarships for graduates' children, and champion mentorship programs that connect our proud alumni with current students striving to cross the graduation stage.
Community Engagement & Service:
Transforming the Southland Through Action
Governors State University is a deeply rooted community anchor, extending its mission far beyond traditional academic borders to uplift families, advocate for equity, and provide critical local resources. Your legacy gift can permanently sustain our most vital, public-facing community initiatives:
Invest in our region's youngest minds and their families. A planned gift to the FDC secures permanent resources for exceptional early childhood education, vital childcare services for student-parents, and robust family support systems that give children a head start in life.
Champion systemic equity, inclusion, and community empowerment. Legacy gifts create a permanent financial foundation for advocacy programming, community healing circles, and student-led equity projects designed to turn passion into measurable, lasting progress.
Bridge the gap between legal education and public service. Supporting the Clinic through your estate planning ensures that Southland residents continue to receive vital, accessible legal assistance while providing GovState students and hundreds of members throughout Chicago’s Southland with invaluable, real-world advocacy experience.
Governors State Library
Preserving the Gateway to Knowledge
As the intellectual heart of our campus, the Governors State Library provides critical tools, research databases, and collaborative spaces that spark academic discovery. A planned gift to the library ensures that students, faculty, and community scholars always have access to evolving digital technologies, expanded archival collections, and modern learning environments designed to foster lifelong inquiry and intellectual freedom.
The Center for Performing Arts
Keeping the Cultural Arts Vibrant for Generations.
For over three decades, the Center for Performing Arts has served as the region's premier cultural destination, inspiring tens of thousands of community members and schoolchildren annually. Including the CPA in your estate plans creates an enduring legacy that keeps our stage bright—endowing world-class, diverse programming, lowering ticket barriers for local families, and expanding vital arts education and outreach for Southland youth.
The Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park
Preserving the “Museum in the Prairie”
The internationally acclaimed Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park spans 100 acres of vibrant, restored Illinois prairie and is a magnificent free outdoor museum showcasing masterworks of large-scale contemporary sculpture. Including the Sculpture Park in your estate plans ensures that this beloved cultural destination remains a permanent sanctuary of public art for generations to come. Legacy gifts provide the vital resources needed for the ongoing conservation of the collection, prairie restoration, and the expansion of free educational programs for local schoolchildren and art enthusiasts alike.
Scholarships
Removing Financial Barriers, Creating Lifelong Paths.
For many of our hard-working scholars—including first-generation trailblazers and non-traditional adult learners—a scholarship is the ultimate catalyst that turns the dream of a college degree into a reality. Establishing a named, endowed scholarship through your will or trust provides permanent financial security for generations of students. Your legacy will directly alleviate the burden of tuition, allowing bright young minds to enter our university, persist in their studies, and proudly graduate.
The Legacy Society at Governors State University
When you inform us of your intention to include Governors State University in your estate planning, you are automatically enrolled as a member of our premier giving society, the 1969 Circle, named in recognition of the day the university opened its doors. This Legacy Society recognizes the visionary individuals who hold a deep, unshakeable commitment to our mission.
Tell Us About Your Gift
Have you included the Governors State University Foundation in your estate plans? If so, you are already a member of our Legacy Society!
We deeply appreciate learning about your visionary choices. Sharing your specific intentions allows us to properly celebrate your loyalty, ensure your gift is directed precisely as you wish, and assist you with proper designation language. Please rest assured that your future giving intentions can remain completely confidential if you prefer to remain anonymous.
Corporate Entity Information: Use the exact data parameters below to seamlessly update your beneficiary forms, IRA rollover directives, or estate packets:
Legal Corporate Name: Governors State University Foundation
Official Address: 1 University Parkway, University Park, IL 60484
TAX ID: 23-7039376
Governors State University Office of Institutional Advancement
Direct Phone Line: 708.534.4088 | Email: ablackwell@govst.edu
Contact Antigone Blackwell for further information
Contact Us
- Office of Institutional Advancement
- Governors State University
- 1 University Parkway, University Park, IL 60484
- 708.534.4088
- ablackwell@govst.edu