(a)(1) The Board of Trustees of the Connecticut State University System shall establish a permanent Endowment Fund for the Connecticut State University System to encourage donations from the private sector, with an incentive in the form of an endowment fund state grant, the net earnings on the principal of which are dedicated and made available to a state university or the Connecticut State University System as a whole, for endowed professorships, scholarships and programmatic enhancements. The fund shall be administered by the board of trustees, or by a nonprofit entity entrusted for such purpose and qualified as a Section 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United States, as from time to time amended, and preferably constituted and controlled independent of the state and university so as to qualify the interest on state bonds the proceeds of which have been granted for deposit in the endowment fund as excludable from federal taxation under such code and shall, in any event, be held in a trust fund separate and apart from all other funds and accounts of the state and university. There shall be deposited into the fund: (A) Endowment fund state grants; and (B) interest or other earnings from the investment of moneys in the endowment fund pending transfer of the principal of the fund for the purposes identified in this subdivision. Endowment fund eligible gifts made on behalf of a state university or the system as a whole shall be deposited in a permanent endowment fund created for each such state university and the system as a whole in the appropriate foundation established pursuant to sections 4-37e and 4-37f. A portion of the endowment fund state grant and a portion of earnings on such grant, including capital appreciation, shall be transferred, annually, within thirty days of the receipt of the endowment fund state grant by the permanent Endowment Fund for the Connecticut State University System, to such a state university endowment fund based on the ratio of the total amount of such gifts made to such state university to the total amount of all such gifts made to all the state universities and the system as a whole, provided the provisions of § 4-37f are satisfied.

(2) (A) For each of the fiscal years ending June 30, 2000, to June 30, 2006, inclusive, as part of the state contract with donors of endowment fund eligible gifts, the Office of Higher Education, in accordance with § 10a-8b, shall deposit in the Endowment Fund for the Connecticut State University System a grant in an amount equal to half of the total amount of endowment fund eligible gifts received by or for the benefit of the Connecticut State University System as a whole and each state university for the calendar year ending the December thirty-first preceding the commencement of such fiscal year, as certified by the chairperson of the board of trustees by February fifteenth to (i) the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, (ii) the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to appropriations and the budgets of state agencies, and (iii) the executive director of the Office of Higher Education, provided such sums do not exceed the endowment fund state grant maximum commitment for the fiscal year in which the grant is made.

(B) For each of the fiscal years ending June 30, 2007, to June 30, 2014, inclusive, as part of the state contract with donors of endowment fund eligible gifts, the Office of Higher Education, in accordance with § 10a-8b, shall deposit in the Endowment Fund for the Connecticut State University System a grant in an amount equal to one-quarter of the total amount of endowment fund eligible gifts, except as provided for in this subdivision, received by or for the benefit of the Connecticut State University System as a whole and each state university for the calendar year ending the December thirty-first preceding the commencement of such fiscal year, as certified by the chairperson of the board of trustees by February fifteenth to (i) the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, (ii) the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to appropriations and the budgets of state agencies, and (iii) the executive director of the Office of Higher Education, provided such sums do not exceed the endowment fund state grant maximum commitment for the fiscal year in which the grant is made. Endowment fund eligible gifts that meet the criteria set forth in this subdivision, made by donors during the period from January 1, 2005, to June 30, 2005, shall continue to be matched by the Office of Higher Education in an amount equal to one-half of the total amount of endowment fund eligible gifts received. Commitments by donors to make endowment fund eligible gifts for two or more years that meet the criteria set forth in this subdivision and that are made for the period prior to December 31, 2004, but ending before December 31, 2012, shall continue to be matched by the Office of Higher Education in an amount equal to one-half of the total amount of endowment fund eligible gifts received.

(C) In any such fiscal year in which the total of the eligible gifts received by the Connecticut State University System as a whole and each state university exceed the endowment fund state grant maximum commitment for such fiscal year the amount in excess of such endowment fund state grant maximum commitment shall be carried forward and be eligible for a matching state grant in any succeeding fiscal year from the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, to the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, inclusive, subject to the endowment fund state grant maximum commitment. Any endowment fund eligible gifts that are not included in the total amount of endowment fund eligible gifts certified by the chairperson of the board of trustees pursuant to this subdivision may be carried forward and be eligible for a matching state grant in any succeeding fiscal year from the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, to the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, inclusive, subject to the endowment fund state matching grant maximum commitment for such fiscal year.

(3) The Board of Trustees of the Connecticut State University System shall adopt, by October 1, 1997, guidelines with respect to (A) the solicitation of endowment fund eligible gifts from private donors, and (B) governing the acceptance of gifts made by a foundation established pursuant to sections 4-37e and 4-37f, to a state university or its employees for reimbursement of expenditures or payment of expenditures on behalf of a state university or its employees. Private donations shall not be construed to include proceeds of federal grants but may include proceeds of municipal grants.

(b) For the purposes of this section: (1) “Endowment fund eligible gift” means a gift to or for the benefit of any of the state universities of the Connecticut State University System or the system as a whole of cash or assets which may be reduced to cash or which has the value that is ascertainable by the state universities or the system as a whole and which the donor has specifically designated for deposit in the endowment fund or which explicitly or implicitly by the terms of the gift, the universities or the system as a whole may and does deposit or permit to be deposited in the endowment funds. (2) “Endowment fund state grant” means moneys transferred by the Office of Higher Education from the fund established pursuant to § 10a-8b to the endowment fund established pursuant to this section in an aggregate amount not exceeding the endowment fund state grant maximum commitment. (3) “Endowment fund state grant maximum commitment” means an amount not exceeding two and one-half million dollars in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, five million dollars for each of the fiscal years ending June 30, 2001, and June 30, 2002, and seven million five hundred thousand dollars for each of the fiscal years ending June 30, 2003, to June 30, 2014, inclusive.