Endowment gifts ensure the future of climate research Two $1M gifts from the Bernier and Ives families support the Center’s endowment Sarah Ruiz
Science Writer/Editor
Looking around at the crowd of friends gathered for George Woodwell’s 90th birthday party, Steve Bernier and Constance Messmer realized that the organization Woodwell had founded over 35 years ago had something special. “It was the people. We were sitting there, watching the passion, the connection,” says Bernier. “It moved my wife and me, and made me think ‘I want to participate more actively.’” This realization moved Bernier to commit a $1 million gift to Woodwell Climate Research Center’s endowment. For another long-time friend of the center, Woody Ives, it was his family’s growing concern about climate change and a desire to help the Center adapt to new challenges that moved him to do the same. “A robust endowment will help produce the climate solutions needed today and also keep the Center’s research strong to meet new climate challenges,” says Ives. “Our whole family is concerned about climate change and we are proud to make this commitment to the future of Woodwell Climate Research Center.” Together, these two generous gifts represent an investment in the future of research at Woodwell Climate. Sustaining science through an unpredictable future Science can be an unpredictable process, and studying a rapidly evolving problem
Fall 2023
Climate Science for Change
like climate change requires a particular blend of nimbleness and persistence. Finding funding for the kinds of multiyear experiments that help us better understand our changing climate can be a challenge, which is what makes contributions to the Center’s general endowment a vital source of stability. Whereas specific grant funds are designated for particular time-bound research, general endowment funds provide the financial flexibility and stability needed to recruit and retain world-class climate scientists for the long term. “It’s a powerful investment in the future of the Center,” says Beth Bagley, Director of Legacy Giving at Woodwell Climate. “Scientific research is a long term process by nature, so really this is an investment to ensure all of our cutting-edge work reaches completion.” An expanded endowment will also allow research priorities at the Center to adapt as the climate crisis evolves. “As our understanding of the impacts of climate change develops, we need the flexibility to focus our efforts on research and solutions that will have the highest impact,” says Woodwell Climate President and CEO Max Holmes. “We will face new challenges in the coming years that we couldn't have predicted in past ones, and Woodwell remains committed to meeting those challenges head on with the best possible science.”
Steve Bernier and Constance Messmer Woody and Elizabeth Ives, with their son, Ben Ives is pleased that his contribution will support the community of scientific skill and dedication that has been cultivated at the Center for years to come. “There’s no quick and easy solution for a lot of these problems,” says Ives. “So I’m thinking medium and long term— thinking about tomorrow and the next day, rather than today.”
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