The highest honor Harvard Medical School can bestow on a faculty member is an appointment to an endowed professorship.
Endowed professorships recognize extraordinary clinicians, researchers, and educators at HMS or one of its affiliate institutions.
Some endowed professorships are intended to honor expertise within a broad field of study (e.g., psychiatry), whereas others have a more specific focus. Incumbents are appointed in recognition of their singular contributions to medical science in a particular area, as well as their national and often international reputations as leaders in education, clinical expertise, and investigation. Endowed professorships at affiliate institutions stand in perpetuity, generating invaluable support for incumbents, their institutions, and HMS while building a history of remarkable scholarship and leadership under one name.
Table of Contents
Gift Funding Requirement
The amount and allocation of gifts required to endow a professorship at an affiliate institution are as follows:
$3,600,000 Endowed Fund principal
$400,000 HMS General Purpose Fund contribution
$4,000,000 Total gift funding requirement
Investment gains and reinvested income distributions do not apply to the funding requirement; the professorship must be funded completely through gifts. See “Income Activation” for additional information.
Timetable
Donors have five years to complete the funding of a professorship from the opening of the account at HMS with a minimum gift of $100,000. The $400,000 HMS General Purpose Fund contribution will be appropriated in the second payment before the endowment corpus is funded. Standard terms for an endowed professorship at an affiliate institution provide that if the full amount of the funding is not secured within five years, the fund may, at the discretion of the dean of the faculty of medicine, be re-designated as a current-use teaching and research fund for support of the affiliate institution’s activities most closely related to the original intent of the donors.
Naming
The donor can designate an appropriate name for the professorship, pending its acceptance by the University. Professorships cannot be named for active faculty members, but a placeholder name can be created until the individual retires, at which point the professorship title may be amended to include the faculty member’s name.
Per the University Gift Policy, it is not permissible to use an active faculty member’s last name in a placeholder title. For example, the interim titles Beauregard Family Professorship and Agnes and James Beauregard Professorship (named for the faculty member’s parents) are not permissible if Dr. Beauregard is an active faculty member.
University Gift Policy requires that, when donors propose a naming gift to recognize another individual or entity, permission must be obtained from that individual or entity. If the individual whose name is to be used is deceased, permission to use the name should be obtained from the authorized family representative(s).
Designation
Most donors will want to designate the area of medicine or medical science to be supported by an endowed professorship. HMS encourages donors to direct their gifts toward high-priority areas, as determined by leaders at the School or its affiliated institutions. To ensure a gift is useful for future generations, HMS and the University require sufficient flexibility in the terms of the professorship to accommodate advances in medicine and medical science. Professorship terms may require that incumbents be located at a specific affiliate. All professorship titles must be appended with the HMS academic department title (e.g., pediatrics). If relevant, a subspecialty is recognized by adding “in the field of” (e.g., allergy and immunology). Neither fund terms nor donors, in any capacity, can stipulate who may or must be appointed as incumbents.
Crediting
The University would like to recognize its alumni from Harvard College, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, who personally contribute a minimum of $100,000 to HMS professorships via affiliates rather than through Harvard directly. For these alums to receive recognition credit in a Harvard campaign and their respective class reunions, HMS will require:
- Fund terms co-signed by the alum or referencing the alum by name, with an indication of what portion of the gift/pledge should be associated with the alum.
- Other gift documentation from the donor evidencing the gift/pledge amount, the professorship name, and the name of the alum.
Celebration
Once the University has approved the nominated incumbent (see “Incumbent Nomination and Approval”), AAD and the affiliated institution sponsor a celebratory event. Celebrations will typically occur no sooner than six months after the minimum funding amount for the incumbent nomination has been reached through gifts.
HMS will host a celebration for the inaugural incumbent only. The HMS Special Events team will work with the affiliated institution, which should confer with donors and administration, to secure a date for the celebration. Celebrations usually take place from 4 to 6 p.m. on the HMS campus and are hosted by the dean of the faculty of medicine or their representative.
The events are usually attended by the incumbent, the president of the affiliated institution, the head of the incumbent’s department, and the donor(s). Family members and colleagues are typically invited as well. HMS will work with the affiliate to create the invitation list and generate the invitations. The guest list for professorship celebrations should not exceed 225 households, with the expectation that a maximum of 100 guests will attend.
The School presents the incumbent with a citation and the donor with a commemorative gift. AAD provides a photographer for the event. If an affiliate wishes to send a photographer, they should first alert the HMS Special Events team.
Incumbent Nomination and Approval
In general, donors meet the total gift funding requirement before incumbents are nominated and installed. However, Harvard’s Corporation recognizes a standing exception for affiliate institutions whereby incumbents may be nominated and later installed provided that:
- The professorship reaches or exceeds the sum in gifts of 50% of the required principal and 100% of the required HMS General Purpose Fund contribution (currently $2.2 million), and
- There is a high probability that the donor will fully fund the professorship within five years of the opening of the account with the initial gift of $100,000 or more.
Inaugural incumbents nominated before the full gift funding requirement has been reached receive a “naming activation” (i.e., once installed, they bear the endowed professorship title, but income distributions are not available for spending until the full funding has been received).
Per HMS policy, incumbents to professorships must ordinarily be either full-time professors (including Professor of Clinical X, Professor in Residence, or Professor of the Practice) or associate professors with exceptional accomplishments. While professorship fund terms often allow for either academic rank to hold the professorship title, some professorships require a specific rank.
Nomination Steps
To nominate an incumbent, departments/institutions complete these steps:
- Nomination request: The department head, chief academic officer, or affiliate president/CEO emails the following nomination materials to endowedprof@hms.harvard.edu:
Nomination letter addressed to the dean of the faculty of medicine that outlines the candidate’s qualifications as well as why they were selected over other eligible faculty members.
CV dated within the past three months (only required for new incumbents).
Written acknowledgment from the faculty member (only required for distinguished or emeritus/a).
OFA will work with the relevant offices to confirm that the proposed incumbent’s qualifications are consistent with the professorship terms, that the nominee warrants the distinction of being an incumbent of an endowed professorship, and that the professorship has received sufficient gifts for naming activation.
- Nomination sent: After a formal review and approval process at HMS, the dean of the faculty of medicine makes a recommendation to the provost requesting appointment to the professorship.
- Nomination approval: Upon approval by the University, the HMS dean for faculty affairs informs the nominating institution and sends a letter of congratulations to the appointed incumbent.
The timeframe from receipt of nominating materials to formal approval is a minimum of three months.
Appointment of a professor as the incumbent of an endowed professorship is not tied to WLT (Without Limit of Time) or OID (Of Indefinite Duration) status.
At appropriate intervals, typically no less often than every five years, the dean of the faculty of medicine may, with the advice of the trustees or directors of the affiliate institution, review the status of appointments to endowed professorships. OFA will contact affiliate leadership to obtain a letter acknowledging this periodic review process.
Associate professors who hold endowed chairs will have renewable appointments that initially extend until the end date of their associate professor appointments. If they are promoted to full professor, the endowed professorship title may “move up” with them, pending nomination and approval.
If the professorship is unanchored (the terms do not specify an affiliate institution), the location of the professorship is at the discretion of the dean of the faculty of medicine. Affiliate leadership should contact OFA to discuss their interest in nominating an incumbent but not submit a nomination when a vacancy is anticipated.
Eligibility
Ordinarily, nominated incumbents meet all criteria for a full-time appointment at HMS, as outlined in the handbook section on eligibility, unless otherwise indicated in the terms. Specific attention to be paid to particular attention should be paid to the geographic requirements for full-time eligibility.
In addition, there is an academic review of the nominee with respect to how the incumbent was selected using inclusive practices, academic rank, field of study, contributions to the academic mission, and other aspects that relate to alignment with the terms of the professorship.
Distinguished and Emeritus/a Status
Endowed Distinguished Professor
When a department head or other administrative leader who holds an endowed professorship reduces effort in an administrative or leadership role but continues their faculty appointment, the faculty member may retain the endowed title, or the title may be modified by the term “distinguished.” Typically, transition to “distinguished” status indicates that the faculty member, unless agreed to by arrangement with hospital leadership and the Office of Finance, will no longer receive financial resources from the professorship. Transition to distinguished status requires a nomination by the department head or CEO/president and approval by the provost. Once an incumbent has transitioned to “distinguished” status, a new primary incumbent may be nominated following the process above.
Endowed Emeritus/a Professor
A faculty member is eligible for emeritus/a status if they meet the following criteria:
- The faculty member retires from an eligible faculty position after faithful service.
- They have reached the age of 60.
- They have a minimum of five years of continuous service immediately preceding retirement.
An emeritus/a appointment requires approval by HMS and the provost.
Income Activation
Endowed professorship funds are activated after the total gift is received and deposited, including the principal of the endowment and the contribution to the HMS General Purpose Fund.
Income Distributions and Expenditures
Income distributions for all endowments, including affiliate professorship endowments, are set annually by the University in July. The distribution is based on the average monthly value of the fund for the prior year.
Income distributions from professorship endowments must be used in accordance with the terms governing the fund.
Projections of available income, together with fund terms, are provided by the Office of Finance to the affiliate department financial offices at the start of each fiscal year. HMS expects affiliate department heads to develop and review annual spending plans for professorship income with the relevant incumbents and requires annual certification statements relating to the proper use of funds.
Affiliate departments access the annual income through a reimbursement process. Procedures and system training are available to facilitate this process.
Administration and Assessments
The fund will be managed in accordance with University and HMS policies, including policies governing endowment funds, which may be amended from time to time. A portion of the annual income will be applied to assessments, which defray Harvard’s administrative and infrastructure costs associated with activities supported by the professorship fund.
Financial Reporting
The University publishes an annual financial report each fall, which is publicly available on the Harvard website: finance.harvard.edu/annual-report. This report provides detailed information about the endowment performance each year.