The Jackson-Hope Fund was established in 2001 by a generous group of donors committed to making a transformative impact on the academic program at Virginia Military Institute. The Fund’s founding members recognized that to make a great institution even better requires support to develop innovative academic programs and to attract and retain the best and brightest faculty.

In order to provide this support, they established the Fund with the sole purpose of supporting academics through grants awarded annually by the Fund’s Board of Overseers.

Since its inception, the Fund has provided over $7 million in grants in support of the Institute’s academic program. This support has been instrumental in the success of strategic academic initiatives, such as promoting undergraduate research across the curriculum, developing the academic study of leadership, and creating new academic minors.

Jackson-Hope has also provided the resources to recruit, retain, and develop an outstanding faculty that is committed to undergraduate education.

Thanks in large part to Jackson-Hope support, the Institute has made great strides toward achieving the Vision 2039 goal of improving VMI’s academic reputation as a premier undergraduate college in America.