New Balance sports apparel company has announced two commitments in support of university athletics programs: $7 million to the University of Maine and University of Maine Foundation and $10 million to the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston).

The gift to the University of Maine is part of the fundraising campaign for the New Balance Track & Field and Soccer Complex and includes a partnership between the university and company to launch a “Future Scholars” endowed scholarship in the amount of $2,500 annually. “We also share a commitment to prioritizing accessibility, equity, and community use and involvement at the highest levels with this new complex,” said University of Maine and the University of Maine at Machias president Joan Ferrini-Mundy. “Generous gifts like this one from New Balance help support infrastructure and create modern facilities necessary to serve students and the state, and we are grateful.”

The gift to UMass Boston will provide operational funds to launch the New Balance Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sport and endow it in perpetuity. The institute aims to provide faculty and academic support and bolster scholarship funding to increase student enrollment in the academic program to between 200 and 300 students annually.

“With this new Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sport, our three pillars are sport equity, sport innovation, and sport performance and holistic wellness,” said UMass Boston chair of sport leadership and administration Joseph N. Cooper. “This integrated specialization approach will allow us to engage in impactful equity-minded research, education, and programming that advances the sports industry across multiple levels and society more broadly.”

(Photo credit: University of Maine)