February
21, 2003 Campaign
Coup: Mount Holyoke Meets Kresge Challenge, Completes Fundraising
for Science Center
| 
Photo: Jim Gipe
The
new science center's Kendade Hall |
Thanks
to the generosity of hundreds of alumnae, parents, and friends
of the College, Mount has met the "bricks-and-mortar”
challenge put forward by the Kresge Foundation in 2001, and has
completed fundraising for the new science center.
The foundation's challenge was for the College to raise
$5 million in new gifts and pledges toward its science center
fundraising goal of $36 million ($34 million for the new science
center's construction, renovation, and equipment and $2
million for endowment) by January 1, 2003. If this goal was met,
Kresge agreed to award Mount Holyoke the remaining $1 million
necessary to complete fundraising for the science project. At
the time of the challenge, the College had raised just under
$31 million, which meant that Mount Holyoke needed to raise $5
million in eighteen months. The College ended up raising $6,185,000
by December of last year, exceeding the challenge goal by more
than $1 million.
The Kresge Foundation, an independent, private foundation, was
created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge "to promote the well-being
of mankind.” The foundation contends that "a challenge
grant toward an organization's capital project does more
than just build a building or reward good programs. It presents
an opportunity to build institutional capacity by helping an organization
broaden and deepen its base of support from the private sector
and by encouraging volunteer involvement in the fundraising effort
and beyond.”
"I never had any doubt we would meet the Kresge challenge
because I know Mount Holyoke and Mount Holyoke alumnae,”
says President Joanne V. Creighton. "Congratulations to
all our donors (individuals, foundations, and corporations) for
rising to the occasion and for their commitment to science education
at the College. My thanks also go to the Kresge Foundation for
offering the College this opportunity to stimulate giving and
to our development staff for its hard work.” Says Charles
Haight, vice president for development, "The Kresge challenge
is a real success story for MHC. The Kresge Foundation and donors
to the challenge enabled the College to fund fully the wonderful
new science facility through gifts to the campaign.”
The science center
project is a funding initiative of The Campaign for Mount Holyoke
College, the comprehensive fundraising campaign called for in
The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003. The College's campaign
was launched in October 1998 with a goal of raising $200 million
in gifts and pledges for endowment, current operations, new initiatives,
academic and cocurricular programs, and facilities. It surpassed
its $200-million goal in late December 2001, and in March of last
year,
the College's board of trustees voted to expand the campaign
goal to $250 million.
The new science center is the largest campus building project
since the renovation and expansion of Williston Library in the
early 1990s (for which the Kresge Foundation also awarded a $1-million
challenge grant). Scheduled for completion in August 2003, the
center has progressed on time and on budget and is already serving
the needs of students and faculty.
The Kresge Challenge: Some Facts and Figures
More than 80 percent of donors to the science center
made their gifts in response to the Kresge challenge.
More than 600 donors have made gifts to the science project.
Donors to the Kresge challenge range in age from
twenty-eight to ninety-eight, with at least one donor
from every class from 1926 through1995.
One hundred percent of current trustees
made a gift to the Kresge challenge.
The
counter is
1,218
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