UVU announces $17.7 million donation from doTERRA

UVU announced a donation of $17.7 million from doTERRA, the second-largest donation in the history of the school.

The donation was announced in a press conference on UVU campus Sept. 27 as part of a 10-year agreement between the company and UVU. The donation will not be in one heap sum. Rather, it will be a recurring commitment to funding programs and initiatives over the next decade.

According to the press release, large portions of the money will go towards funding online learning resources, scholarships and athletic programs.

The massive donation was spurred, according to founding executive and current CFO Corey Lindley, by the company’s involvement with the Center for Autism, as well as the Women’s Success Center at UVU. Both were touted by CEO David Stirling as unique achievements for the university.

“This is a long-term relationship,” Lindley said of the company’s relationship with UVU. “For us, we felt like we’ve had a relationship with UVU for a long time. This just formalizes it a bit more.”

Included in the donation is an incipient donation towards funding for a new student-athlete wellness building. All buildings planned to carry the company’s name are:

• The doTERRA Field at UCCU Ballpark
• The doTERRA Performance Center in the Lockhart Arena
• The auditorium in the Pope Science Building
• The doTERRA Wolverine Training Dome

“The athletic portion of the donation will help fund the planned Student-Athlete Academic and Wellness Center, new field turf for baseball at the UCCU Ballpark, renovations and upgrades to the Lockhart Arena and funding for student-athlete wellness, welfare, and scholarships,” the press release states. 

Each athlete will also receive doTERRA products.

The investment also represents doTERRA’s push into medical research and healthcare. Daniel Horns, associate dean of the College of Science, says the money will go towards faculty-mentored research, calling the amount “significant, enough to support something on the order of 50 student researchers per year, give them supplies and travel funds for their research.”

The Noorda Center, the Center for Constitutional Studies, the Women’s Success Center, as well as the track and field team and the basketball programs, will also benefit from the donation.

doTERRA is a local private company specializing in essential oils and personal care products. It is based in Pleasant Grove and was founded in 2008 by current CEO David Stirling and others as essential oil products gained popularity in Utah and the United States.

“At doTERRA we feel an affinity with Utah Valley University,” the press release quoted Stirling as saying. “More than 500 of our current employees attend UVU. Plus, we have many employees who graduated from UVU or have children at the university. This donation gives us the opportunity to support a variety of UVU academic, athletic, and art-based programs over the next 10 years.”

The donation follows the $10 million donated by Scott and Karen Keller earlier this month and is part of the school’s push to expand private and alumni donations. The largest donation in UVU history was a $21.6 million donation by the Woodbury family in 2007.

President Astrid Tuminez also credited the students for drawing in donations. 

“I would like students to understand that this is also their work,” said Tuminez. “When they succeed, when they don’t give up, when they introduce us to their parents or their uncles or their employers, it’s this whole networking. We are doing things that we need to [do to gain] the attention of the people who can support our initiatives.”