Support us
Gifts to the Tucker Center allow us to support scholarships, fellowships, lectures, and research that make a difference in the lives of girls and women, their families, and their communities. Make a gift below and join the Friends of the Tucker Center.
Match your passion to our research projects
You can support the Tucker Center's research in through various funds. We greatly appreciate your support.
This fund will provide funding to support a graduate assistant or post-doctoral fellow affiliated with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport who is (or will) conduct research that can be translated to accelerate systems change for girls and women in sport and/or gender equity initiatives.
This fund will support the scholarship, research and ideas of the College of Education and Human Development. The fund focuses on its faculty and students in areas of school and after-school programs that advance sport, physical fitness, and recreation.
This fund is provides ongoing support of the Director of the Tucker Center. This fund assists the Dean and the Tucker Center's efforts for strong leadership and research on girls and women in sports. This fund may be used to support the director through salary costs, augmentation, as well as other activities or projects of the director.
This fund supports graduate students working with the Tucker Center.
This fund supports graduate education, including but not limited to graduate assistantships, research support, travel to conferences, and equipment.
This fund rewards participation and enthusiasm of undergraduate students pursuing a sport management program. To encourage students to deepen their commitment to this discipline, the award may be used to cover the costs of tuition, attendance at appropriate conferences, applicable research, and outreach activities. The award also provides funding for special lectures related to programs in sport management.
This fund provides scholarships in the Tucker Center.
This fund provides resources for girls and women to participate in sport and physical activity. The funds can be used for research support, outreach , programming, and development. Such opportunities include, but are not limited to, funding travel, transpiration, facility rental, registration fees, tournament expenses, camp fees, equipment, and coach stipends. The fund will be housed in the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport under the direction of the Director, Associate Director, and a Program Affiliate who will have to distribute the funds and work with project partners. Documentation of fund expenditures, as well as research about the effects of providing sport opportunities to girls and women will be provided annually.
This fund supports an annual Women Coaches Symposium event hosted by the Tucker Center. This event aims to provide high quality educational programming and professional development, networking, and community for women in the coaching profession. This fund will be used first to support the Jean K. Freeman Distinguished Keynote speaker, which is to honor Jean's legacy and her strong sense of education, athlete development, community service, giving back, and mentoring young coaches. The priority of this fund is to support the keynote speaker and then any remaining funds can support the symposium.
This fund provides a flexible source of financial support for research, educational activities and community outreach in areas that examine media coverage of female athletes.
This endowment honors the leadership and legacy of Pam Borton. This fund's purpose is to promote leadership among girls and women in a sport context. This may include but not be limited to funding assistantships for graduate students, hosting a national forum on women's leadership development, and supporting research examining the role of sport on females' leadership development.
This fund is for current and/or prospective graduate students enrolled in the College of Education and Human Development who are (1) studying in any area offered by the School of Kinesiology and (2) who are participating in graduate assistantships in the Tucker Center doing research focusing on issues related to the links between gender equity and participation in sport and/or physical activity.
This fund supports graduate fellowships in the Tucker Center.
This fund provides allows the Tucker Center to support interns. This can include, but is not limited to, University of Minnesota undergraduate or graduate students, or non-U of M students who are working or studying at the Tucker Center (e.g. undergraduate interns, graduate assistants, seasonal employees). The purpose of the internship program is to mentor, educate, and provide a quality research experience where undergraduate and graduate students work collaboratively with Tucker Center faculty and graduate students on cutting-edge projects.
This fund supports the general operational needs of the Tucker Center.
The fund supports critically-needed research in areas that address gender equity in sport and physical activity.
The fund provides a flexible source of financial support for research, educational activities and community outreach in areas that examine media coverage of female athletes.
Questions?
Contact the College of Education and Human Development's External Relations team. They'll be happy to assist you.
Friends of the Tucker Center
Since the founding of the Tucker Center in 1994, we have received substantial financial support from individuals, foundations and organizations. These donors have made significant contributions toward accomplishing our mission of research, education and community outreach on behalf of girls and women in sport.
Individual donors
Mary Beth Barry uses her time, talents, and treasures to make a difference in our world. Mary Beth has taught physical education and religious studies for over 25 years at her alma mater, DeLaSalle High School. There, she has coached boy's soccer and tennis, girl's basketball on all levels, and is currently the clock operator for boys and girls soccer and football. She uses the Tucker Center’s research to keep up with the cutting edge of all that is good in education. She is happy to report that the research is well-received by her students. Mary Beth also volunteers in the community at "Sharing and Caring Hands," Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and her church, along with regularly donating blood.
Barry says she decided to contribute financially to the Tucker Center because: "It's the right thing to do--you put your money where your values are. I'm confident the Tucker Center is doing the right thing. With my latest contribution, I targeted my donation to the Eloise Jaeger Scholarship fund so that we can pass along educational opportunities to others."
Margaret Chutich, a lawyer with the state Attorney General's office in criminal appellate practice, was the Minnesota State High School Champion in tennis in 1975, played varsity basketball for Stanford her freshman year, and as a Minnesota Golden Gopher, won several tennis titles. This includes a Big 10 singles title and a runner-up in doubles. Chutich is now an avid golfer and still participates in tennis with a mixed doubles game every week. She says she came to know, appreciate, and believe in Kane and the Tucker Center through her participation in the Throw Like a Girl video.
Chutich remarks: "It is absolutely necessary to support the Tucker Center as an institute that studies sport and makes sure that people know the history of girls and women. It's wonderful that the Tucker Center is at the University of Minnesota and fills this extremely valuable role."
What do the following elements have in common? A cross country road race, a fund raising campaign, a former smoker and a self described non-athlete. The answer? Katie Lindquist, who is all of the above and then some. Lindquist's combination of talent and perseverance resulted in a young woman determined to chart new trails for herself and other women. Showing great initiative, Lindquist decided to fundraise for the Tucker Center in conjunction with her participation in the annual Race Across America. The end result was a miraculous 10-day trip by tandem bicycle from Portland, Oregon, to Gulf Breeze, Florida, and the donation of an incredible monetary gift to the Tucker Center.
When she first read the Tucker Center newsletter, Lindquist was thunderstruck with a common sense of purpose: "I recognized myself and my friends in the Tucker Center's work and I knew I wasn't alone any more. Subsequent newsletters hit all of the points of interest to me, and I have been a devotee of the Tucker Center ever since that time."
Mike Mueller and her husband Van Mueller, who recently passed away, have been lifelong educators and parents to three daughters, as well as devoted grandparents. Their commitment to supporting organizations such as the Tucker Center is exemplary because they are also life-long advocates for issues related to girls and women in sport. The Muellers have been supporters of the Tucker since its inception in 1994. In addition to supporting the Tucker Center, they have also endowed three scholarships. The first is available to Native American students at Augsburg College, where Mueller taught. The second scholarship fund is housed in the School of Kinesiology; the award is in honor of their daughter, Edith Irene Mueller. And the third is a graduate fellowship in the Tucker Center, also in the name of their daughter. Edith was a student in the Recreation and Sport Studies program from 1979 until her untimely death in 1982.
When asked why they contribute financially to the Tucker Center, they responded: "It is important that we continue to work towards parity. In order to do so, we must continue to be vigilant [in our support of Title IX and women's athletics] so that we do not find ourselves going backwards in time."
Bonnie Parkhouse, PhD, has provided generous monetary support, as well as donated her time and energy, to various Tucker Center projects. Parkhouse received her PhD from the University of Minnesota. She was a professor of sport and recreation management at Temple University and the author of numerous books and articles related to women’s involvement in sport and physical activity. Professor Parkhouse was also an avid sports participant. She competed nationally in track and field events during her high-school years, played basketball and ice hockey during her college years, and was active in a variety of sports. As a noted scholar and educator with a long and distinguished career, Parkhouse saw many changes—most of them positive—in the field of women’s athletics.
She also notes that there is still much work to be done: "Female athletes are given tremendous exposure but we still don’t have many women in coaching and administration." Her support of the Tucker Center furthers our work to educate, provide research and community outreach toward the advancement of girls and women in sport.
Foundations and organizations
One of our gifts has come from the Women's Philanthropic Leadership Circle (WPLC). A dedicated group of U of M alumni formed to provide effective financial support to women in educational leadership activities, the WPLC gave an inaugural grant to the Tucker Center to update our groundbreaking research document, Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls 18 and Under. The Tucker Center furthers the WPLC’s mission by connecting educational research about women’s sports, health and fitness to the daily lives of girls and women.
"The Tucker Center is moving life along and looking at best practices…what they are trying to do is to determine where we have been, where we are, and where we should be going."
Marcia Carthaus, WPLC charter member and retired Director of Special Education
Other foundations and organizational contributors
The Tucker Center is also supported by the following foundations and organizations:
- American Association of University Women (national chapter)
- American Association of University Women (Minnesota chapter)
- Boys and Girls Club of Minnesota
- Medtronics
- Minnesota Lynx
- Pfizer
- Philip Morris USA Youth Smoking Prevention
- Otto-Bremer Foundation
- University of Minnesota Graduate School