PNCA Awarded Grant From M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to Built Technological Capacity
May 30, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2013
Contact:
Lisa Radon, Communications Specialist
Pacific Northwest College of Art
lradon@pnca.edu, 971 255 5528
Becca Biggs, Director of Communications
Pacific Northwest College of Art
bbiggs@pnca.edu, 971 255 5511
PNCA Awarded Grant From M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to Built Technological Capacity
PORTLAND, OR – May 31, 2013 – The Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) a grant of $119,800 over three years to build technological capacity, specifically to fund the hire of a web developer. The grant supports the enhancement of the institution’s digital presence ensuring that its web properties serve collectively as an effective recruiting tool, a tool for student engagement, and a platform for communication about campus expansion.
The growing College is in the midst of a capital campaign, Creativity Works Here, to support campus expansion to Portland’s North Park Blocks. Building technological capacity is critical to the continued growth of the College, and in fact this is the second grant for building technological capacity that PNCA has received from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. In 2009, PNCA was awarded $200,000 to support the purchase of PowerCampus, a common platform for sharing student information across departments to support registration, calendaring, transcript activities, tuition tracking, and other administrative functions.
“We’re grateful to the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for supporting critical technological capacity building for PNCA,” says Kavin Buck, Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services. “This grant will be catalytic for a number of web projects.”
About Murdock Charitable Trust
The M.J. Murdock Charitable was created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, who was a co-founder of Tektronix, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon, and a resident of Vancouver, Washington. Since its establishment on June 30, 1975, with a bequest of about $90 million, the Trust has focused its grantmaking efforts primarily in five states of the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Trust’s current assets are valued at about $800 million, and over the life of the Trust, more than $658 million has been distributed through 4,818 grants.
The Trust’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to strengthen the region’s educational, cultural, and spiritual base in creative and sustainable ways. Although the primary funding interests are education and scientific research, grants are also given to a wide variety of organizations, including those that serve the arts, public affairs, health and medicine, human services, and people with disabilities.
The Trust’s staff brings a wide range of experiences in the subject areas and activities necessary for thoughtful grantmaking and the investment of Trust assets. In addition to grantmaking activities, it is common Trust practice to convene groups of people to discuss issues of mutual interest. This practice is of great assistance to the Trust in exploring ways of responding to new grantmaking opportunities consistent with its mission, and promoting a sharing of ideas and networking among participants, and understanding new developments and best practices in the various sectors in which the Trust works.
About Pacific Northwest College of Art
As Oregon’s flagship college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art has helped shape Oregon’s visual arts landscape for more than a century. PNCA students study with award-winning faculty in small classes. In the last seven years, PNCA has doubled both the student body and full-time faculty, quadrupled its endowment, and added innovative undergraduate and graduate programs. PNCA is now embarking on its boldest venture yet by establishing the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design as an anchor for the College’s vision of a new campus home on Portland’s North Park Blocks. Focusing on the transformative power of creativity, the capital campaign, Creativity Works Here, was launched in June 2012 with a lead gift from The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation of $5 million. PNCA’s new home will be a bustling hub for creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting the influential role of art and design in our 21st century economy – both in Portland and beyond. For more information, visit pnca.edu.