UCLA athletics receives $1.6 million gift from alumnus

The monetary donation will directly support 13 individual UCLA sports, including each women’s program

The UCLA Athletic Department is pleased to announce a gift commitment of $1,612,500 from alumnus Mark E. Kalmansohn to support the immediate greatest needs of 13 individual UCLA sports programs, including each of UCLA’s women’s teams and the men’s volleyball and men’s water polo teams.

The gift, to be funded over a five-year period and termed The Mark E. Kalmansohn Targeted Immediate Impact Gift, is focused on empowering each program to adapt and expand student-athlete services at the discretion of the head coach and sport administration as UCLA transitions to the Big Ten Conference in August 2024.

The gift will supplement the current budget available to each program.

This gift is the second of similar magnitude focused on UCLA women’s athletics received from Kalmansohn in the past two years, coming on the heels of a $1.3 million gift in 2022 that was part of UCLA’s launch of the Women of Westwood initiative.

Women of Westwood aims to honor the comprehensive excellence from UCLA female student-athletes and coaches since the creation of Title IX in 1972, as well as inspire philanthropy to enhance the educational and athletic-related resources UCLA provides to help shape the next generation of female leaders.

Kalmansohn’s 2022 gift provided the seed gift for the Women of Westwood Endowment to support all UCLA’s women’s athletics programs.

Concurrently, Kalmansohn established an endowment recognized with the naming of the Associate Head Softball Coach position and extensive current use funding for multiple women’s athletics programs.

Kalmansohn, a native of Los Angeles, is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney (Criminal Division – Central District of California) and later practiced entertainment and intellectual property law, including at Kalmansohn & Andersen, LLP. Bearing two degrees from UCLA, Kalmansohn received a B.A. in Political Science (Regents Scholarship, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and a J.D. (Moot Court Honor Program).

Kalmansohn’s late mother, who also graduated from UCLA and attended UCSF Medical School at the age of 19, helped to fuel his passion for women’s initiatives and overall philanthropic efforts. He also has created an annual UCSF scholarship in perpetuity for incoming female medical students.

Outside of UCLA, Kalmansohn also has generously supported girls’ athletics programs through philanthropy directed to the Santa Monica Public School District.

“It is my honor to be in the position to support UCLA women’s sports, along with men’s volleyball and water polo, and their venerated traditions of excellence,” shared Kalmansohn. “I’m pleased to invest in these programs and their outstanding, dedicated coaches – both in life and sports – as well as the superb, selfless student-athletes who have performed with distinction on and off the field.”

“For me, the most impactful way to help these teams, coaches and student-athletes is with directed gifts over a multi-year period, like those set forth here. Besides my university-directed philanthropy, I’ve been pleased to arrange for more than a dozen NIL contracts with student-athletes in the same programs. I urge UCLA alumni and donors to consider this targeted, impactful approach to help UCLA’s sports programs and student-athletes achieve their maximum potential,” Kalmansohn added.

“I would like to thank Mark both for this generous new gift commitment and again championing the positive impact which athletics has on young women in general and especially here at UCLA,” said Martin Jarmond, UCLA’s Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics. “Mark shares UCLA’s goal of empowering our student-athletes to excel at the highest level both academically and athletically. We can’t thank him enough for advancing this objective with his new gift.”