"Challenging Women" Passes $200 Million Mark

The Challenging Women campaign for Bryn Mawr has surpassed the $200 million mark, Campaign Chair Ruth Kaiser Nelson '58 reports. As of Jan. 31, the campaign had received $200.4 million in gifts and pledges, 89 percent of its minimum goal of $225 million. The figure represents more than twice the amount raised in Bryn Mawr's last campaign.

Campaign staffers and volunteers greeted the news with applause and renewed energy for the final phase of fundraising efforts. Said Nelson: “To all the donors whose generous gifts have contributed to our reaching this incredible milestone, I say: 'thank you and congratulations.' To everyone else, I say: 'Onward and Upward!' ”

The effects of campaign-generated funds are already visible throughout the Bryn Mawr Campus, says Chief Advancement Officer and Secretary of the College Marcus Diamond.

“Campaign money has already provided crucial support for curricular innovation. It has funded new faculty positions that have contributed to the development and growth of new programs as well as enhanced support for existing initiatives,” Diamond says.

“Gifts to the campaign have enabled the College to undertake several important building renovations that have enhanced student life and academic spaces,” Diamond adds. “The Benham Gateway project and Cambrian Row, as well as the renovations to Dalton, the Campus Center and a variety of other buildings have been substantially funded by the campaign.”

Diamond also cites the campaign's significant contribution to the growth of the College's endowment, a critical factor in Bryn Mawr's overall financial health. The campaign has added more than $80 million to the endowment.

Special gifts to the campaign have been accompanied by a dramatic increase in giving to the College's Annual Fund, which topped $5 million for the first time in 2005-06. Over the course of the campaign, giving to the Annual Fund has increased by 74 percent; more than 67 percent of Bryn Mawr alumnae have made gifts to the campaign.

“The increase in annual giving may not be the most spectacular aspect of the campaign,” Diamond says, “but it is as important as any other in the long term. A core goal of the campaign has been to strengthen ongoing support that will continue beyond the campaign. And the Annual Fund has provided much-needed flexibility. It has been especially helpful in meeting the rapidly increasing cost of financial aid.”

According to Diamond, the final months of the campaign will focus on three major goals:

• The complete renovation and renewal of Goodhart Hall
• Dedicated funding to support financial aid
• Dedicated funding to support faculty salaries

The campaign also seeks support for a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, a challenge to endow summer internships in public service and a variety of other projects, as well as maintaining the growth of the Annual Fund. For more news about the campaign, visit the Challenging Women Web site. To make a gift online, visit the College's secure server at https://secure.brynmawr.edu/campaign/.

<Back to Bryn Mawr Now 2/15/2007

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