Alumni join challenge in final campaign push

The countdown is under way, as Skid- more’s Creative Thought Bold Promise campaign crosses the finish line. Launched in 2004 as Skidmore’s most ambitious fundraising effort ever, it officially closes on May 31, with its $200 mil- lion goal looking well within reach. For campaign staff and volunteers, the final leg has focused especially on annual fund gifts, slated to account for $35 million of the $200 million total.

The drive to expand the annual fund, both in dollars and in participation rates each year, has been a key campaign challenge for Skid- more (whose peer colleges typically have longer, stronger histories with an- nual alumni giving). To help boost the effort, Susan Ketter- ingWilliamson ’59, a Skid- more trustee and campaign co-chair, has pledged to add $1 million to her own gift for this year if at least 10,000 alumni, parents, and friends make a gift, of any size, by May 31. “In the last year of the campaign,” she explains, “we want to finish strong.” With that fin- ish arriving during a severe economic re- cession, she adds, “now more than ever, the College needs the support of every member of the Skidmore community.” Knowing that alumni spirit can “go viral,” with classmates’ gifts inspiring others to join in, the challenge leaders quickly expanded class volunteer teams, who set clear goals for their progress— and hit their marks like clockwork so far. Currently more than 600 volunteers are at work on the challenge (trackable at cms.skidmore.edu/challenge).

26 SCOPE SPRING 2010

Why the spotlight on annual giving, with its donations averaging perhaps just a few hundred dollars each? While larger gifts to capital projects and endowment

our athletes, funds for exhibitions and lectures and concerts, and much more.” Special “friends of” societies provide an- nual funding for the Tang Museum, ath- letics programs, and North Woods stewardship, and an- nual fund scholarships ensure crucial aid for individual stu- dents for one or more years. One way or another, Hamil- ton says, “annual giving sup- ports all the distinctive strengths that define Skid- more’s character—creative curricula, our exceptional fac- ulty, a diverse student body, high-caliber facilities, our scholar-athlete ethos, and our fostering of global citizenship. In short, it supports the very foundations of Skidmore’s ex- cellence.” Within the annual fund, donors at the $2,000 level (with a sliding scale for younger alumni) are recog- nized as Friends of the Presi- dents; their FOP-level gifts supply approximately 75 per- cent of total annual fund dol- lars each year.

Along with supporting

STUDENT PHONE-CALLERS ACKNOWLEDGE ALL THE ALUMNI WHO SAID YES TO THE ANNUAL FUND.

funds are crucial for specific new initia- tives, annual fund gifts are budget-reliev- ing and unrestricted as to use, providing ready money for Skidmore’s operating budget each year. And that means far more than paying utility bills or buy- ing computers, ac- cording to Nancy Hamilton ’77, the alumni board’s chair of annual giving. She says the annual fund “provides fi- nancial aid for students, lab equipment and supplies in the sciences, uniforms for

Skid more’s operations, the annual fund supports rela-

“THEY’RE STRENGTHENING THE

TIES THAT CAN ENRICH THEIR OWN LIVES AND THOSE OF FUTURE

SKIDMORE GENERATIONS.”

tionships that also help define the Col- lege experience and its lifelong value, says Davis Bradford ’96, chair of young- alumni giving. Since it affects students and their studies directly, “when alumni participate in the annual fund at any level, they’re engaging in the students-to-

alumni continuum,” Bradford says. “They’re strengthening the ties that can enrich their own lives and those of future Skidmore generations.” Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64