Personal Financial Donations 

The Forensic Anthropology Center does not charge any fees for body donations, nor do we charge researchers to access our facilities. Therefore, we encourage financial contributions to support the research, training and outreach mission of the Forensic Anthropology Center. Your financial contribution can be used to: 

• Support the Body Donation Program: Each body donated costs the FAC approximately $500. These donation-related expenses include fuel (the FAC retrieves donors at no cost to families if they are within 100 miles of Knoxville), vehicles and vehicle maintenance, personal protective equipment (e.g., gloves, aprons, shoe covers), graduate student assistants who help with the donations, and other daily operational costs. Funding is needed to help offset the costs of this extremely important program. 
• Fund Faculty and Student Research Support: Provide research funds for students and faculty. Research travel and equipment can be expensive. With recent loss of federal funds, donations can greatly offset the cost for our students. 
• Help the Accreditation and Certification process.  These funds would help the FAC become the first fully accredited academic anthropology lab in the nation through a national accreditation agency. This fund would also be used to help underwrite the certification costs incurred by students and faculty who work with forensic evidence in an accredited lab. 
• Special Equipment Fund. Through private donations from individuals as well as industry, this fund would assist the FAC in acquiring much-needed equipment that will enhance current research efforts by purchasing, upgrading, maintaining, or receiving corporate gifts in-kind including: 
  • Histological equipment. Modern equipment would enhance our ability to develop new histological aging techniques and study bone pathology. 
  • Imaging Equipment, including an x-ray unit, CT scanner and micro-CT scanner as each provides different perspectives of skeletal variation and pathology. 
  • 3D digitizer and other advanced equipment will allow the FAC to acquire complex data for a more realistic understanding of human sex and ancestry variation as well as how populations change over time (secular change). 
• Outreach. The Forensic Anthropology Center provides dozens of lectures every semester for civic groups and school groups around the country. The Outreach funds would be used to support the High School Forensic Anthropology Program and new outreach initiatives. 

Memorialization: The Forensic Anthropology Center realizes how important body donation is to the individual as well as the families.  We are happy to receive financial gifts on behalf of someone you care about. 

Make a Donation 

Through the University of Tennessee Foundation (UTFI) donors are provided with a number of opportunities to support the FAC including: 

• Gifts of cash and/or appreciated securities; 
• Estate gifts including bequests, charitable gift annuities, real estate and other types of deferred gifts; 
• In-kind gifts of equipment, technology, etc. 

For more information on how you can donate, please contact: 

Blake Cantrell, Director of Development, 865-582-5532