Published: September 8, 2025
Norway Savings Bank recently donated $20,000 to the USM Foundation as part of a multi-year commitment to the McGoldrick Center, which includes a dining hall, the Career & Employment Hub, spaces for the Diversity Center, Student Government Association, and other groups. The McGoldrick Center for Student Success serves as a new hub for the USM Portland campus. About the donation, Dan Walsh, the CEO of Norway Savings Bank, said, “We’re so pleased to have been designated a ‘Founding Sponsor’ of the center by USM. It is already such an incredible resource for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the wider community, including the opportunity for business representatives to connect with students in building relationships and establishing the possibility of eventual employment. NSB is thrilled to be associated with a building that is benefiting so many people today and holds limitless potential for the future.”
The USM Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization and is considered a separate entity from USM, operating with a board of trustees that often includes alumni, large donors, and community and business members. Generally speaking, a university foundation is a type of organization (generally a non-profit) that manages, invests, and allocates funding to support scholarships and research, along with other institutional activities. They also host fundraising events and establish connections with community members and stakeholders. Notably, they manage a university’s endowment, which is essentially an investment fund that has a small percentage withdrawn from it yearly to support operations. According to the USM Foundation’s webpage on the USM website, they “work side by side with the University to make a deep and meaningful impact on the lives of our students, the future of USM, and the economic well-being of Maine.”
The non-profit foundation model is very common across the United States, and for the most part, they function in about the same way. University foundations and endowments have appeared in the news recently as targets of pro-Palestine BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) efforts, where they pressured universities and businesses to divest funds that support the Israeli war effort. They have also received press coverage during funding cuts and attacks on universities by the Trump administration, notably Harvard University. Harvard has the largest endowment of an educational institution – over $50 billion – and it is managed by Harvard Management Company, which is a nonprofit that functions similarly to a foundation, though it is not wholly independent.
You can see the USM Foundations plaque of donors on the second floor of the McGoldrick Center, and you can read about their activities, mission, and goals on their page on the USM website.
