The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million anonymous donation, which will help in its efforts to reduce poverty through evidence-based programs and policies.
The funds will go to college’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), a research center in its department of economics. The money will support two new faculty positions and grow the center’s Social Innovation Fund, which supports pilot programs that aid in anti-poverty efforts.
The search for the two new faculty positions will begin this spring, the university said.
William Evans, LEO co-founder, economics department chair and Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics said, “ultimately, this generosity will allow us to identify more programs that lift families out of poverty and will significantly broaden the impact of LEO’s work.”
The university said LEO emerged from an idea five years ago, evolving into a poverty-reduction impact lab, which is creating evidence-based programs and policies in more than two dozen communities.
