William W. Grainger, an electrical engineering alumni of University of Illinois, created one of the most dominant and innovative industrial supply companies in the world. Grainger Industrial Supply, which trades on the NYSE as GWW, is a Fortune 500 company and has a valuation of just over $15 billion. While the company employees more than 20,000 workers and sells to more than 2 million businesses around the world, they also focus on returning some of that prosperity back to the community through the Grainger Foundation Inc.
The philanthropic dreams of William Grainger can be seen all across the state of Illinois but no where more than at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. The Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, was made possible thanks to a generous donation from the foundation, as were the Grainger Awards Program, the Grainger Lecture Series, renovations to the engineering department and large portion of the equipment used in the school.
It’s clear that the foundation has invested and believes strongly in training and education. As if to put an exclamation point on that statement, the Grainger Foundation has just given the College of Engineering another $100 million pledge. Along with Geffen’s $100 million gift to the UCLA Medical School, it is the largest donation for the 2012-2013 academic year.
University of Illinois President Bob Easter said, “Thanks to the immense generosity of The Grainger Foundation, and its investment in the College of Engineering at Illinois, the University of Illinois can achieve its ambitious and bold program of knowledge production and excellence in education that will foster innovation to address the critical societal issues of today, and future grand challenges for generations to come.”
For more information on the proposed use of the contribution, visit the news page for the engineering department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.