An Essential Resource

Gifts to the Lafayette Fund are vital to ensuring innovation and excellence at Lafayette. Each year, thousands of alumni, parents, and friends make contributions to the Lafayette Fund, which covers approximately 8% of ongoing operating costs.

The Importance of Participation

Alumni participation—the percentage of graduates who make a financial contribution to their alma mater—influences how people view the quality and value of a Lafayette education. All gifts, regardless of size, play an important role in helping Lafayette become the best institution it can be.

Unique Impact

Under Lafayette’s policy of spending five percent of an endowment’s value each year, it would require a $20,000 endowed fund to match the benefit the College receives from a $1,000 Lafayette Fund gift. In addition, when gifts to the Lafayette Fund are made without restrictions on their use, they give the College the flexibility to allocate resources strategically, taking advantage of unexpected opportunities to fund new educational programs and strengthen existing ones.

Lafayette Fund gifts cover immediate needs that funding from other sources, including tuition revenue and endowment earnings, do not sufficiently meet. These include but are not limited to:

  • State-of-the-art classroom technology
  • Financial aid
  • Student-faculty research projects
  • Community-outreach initiatives
  • Study abroad

Make a Gift to the Lafayette Fund