2017-18 Annual Report of Gifts

Last year, the college finalized a new strategic plan that focuses on delivering three promises to students: a sense of place, engaged learning experiences and a transformative education. Your support of the college through the Power of Infinity Campaign enables us to deliver on those promises by funding student scholarships, faculty chairs, student internships and summer research, as well as enhancements to our wonderful campus that help us fulfill these promises. Thanks to your generous ongoing support, we have raised nearly $42 million of our $60 million campaign goal as of Dec.1, 2018.

A significant focus for the remainder of the campaign is to strengthen and grow the college’s endowment, and there are three ways to do that: investment returns, the amount spent from the endowment on annual operating budgets, and new gifts.

Last May, the Board of Trustees announced an endowment challenge initiative in support of student scholarships. Currently, Colby-Sawyer awards more than $25 million each year in financial assistance to help students attend the college. Only five percent of that amount is funded by endowed scholarships. The Trustee Scholarship Challenge is an initiative that adds matching funds to every endowed scholarship established during the next three years. As you will read in the pages that follow, 14 new endowed scholarships have already been established since the Trustee Challenge was announced. Through the generous support of alumni and friends of the college, these endowed scholarships will continue to support students well into the future.

I would like to thank each and every one of you who has contributed in some way to the college this past year. Thanks to your generous support, the college is able to preserve and enhance a high-quality educational experience for our students. Working together, I am confident that we can deliver our three promises to every student who attends Colby-Sawyer.

Susan D. Stuebner
President and Professor of Social Sciences & Education
sue.stuebner@colby-sawyer.edu