The support of more than 22,000 alumni, parents, and friends has propelled the Live Connected, Lead Change campaign toward its goal of $400 million to solidify Lafayette’s standing among the nation’s most outstanding undergraduate institutions and position it for future success.
“The world is demanding the type of education that gives students the breadth, depth, flexibility, and analytic skills that will serve them well in a wide range of careers, and one that provides them with the experience of living and working alongside diverse peers within an engaged community,” says President Alison Byerly. “Lafayette’s distinctive combination of liberal arts and engineering, close interaction and mentoring students receive from faculty, and strong community of support on campus and beyond offer precisely that.”
Reflecting these distinctive strengths, the campaign has three main areas of emphasis, or pillars: Connecting Liberal Arts and Engineering, Fostering Innovation in Teaching and Learning, and Connecting the Campus Community.
Gifts, pledges, and bequests totaled $270 million as of Oct. 31, including more than $34 million since the campaign’s public launch last November.
The impact of the College’s most ambitious fundraising effort ever is tremendous. The generosity of alumni, parents, and friends is enabling Lafayette to enhance and improve every aspect of the Lafayette experience. The campaign is strengthening academic excellence through the addition of faculty positions, new and renovated facilities, resources for financial aid, and other initiatives. It is also dramatically enhancing residential, co-curricular, and extracurricular life on campus, and allowing the College to integrate students’ academic, social, and professional development in exciting new ways.
ACADEMICS. More than $93 million has been raised to strengthen the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, including faculty positions, facilities, equipment, student research, and more.
FINANCIAL AID. The campaign has added more than $39 million to the College’s resources for financial aid. More than 70 new named scholarships have been established in the permanent endowment or through annual giving.
FACILITIES. More than $75 million has been raised for facilities to enhance excellence in all four academic divisions and enrich students’ residential, co-curricular, and extracurricular experiences.
ANNUAL GIVING. The campaign has raised more than $55 million for the Annual Fund. An important campaign priority, annual giving is an essential source of flexible funding that is vital to meeting pressing needs.
CONSISTENT SUPPORT. The Fleck Consistent Giving Society has grown to more than 6,700 members, an increase of more than 75 percent since it was established in 2005. Young alumni may now become members in three years.
SOCIÉTÉ D’HONNEUR. The Société d’Honneur, which recognizes exceptional lifetime generosity on the part of alumni, parents, and friends, has welcomed 22 new members during the campaign, growing by nearly 25 percent.