Fundraising Enterprise is Largest in Trinity’s 185-year Existence

HARTFORD, Conn., October 24, 2007 (Updated May 2008) -Trinity College today announced the public launching of a $350-million fundraising campaign, the largest in the College’s history and one of the most ambitious of any liberal arts college in the country.  Begun quietly in July 2006, the “Cornerstone Campaign for Trinity,” as it is being called, has raised more than $105 million to date, a sum that includes $70 million from the members of the College’s Board of Trustees.

Calling Trinity’s campaign goal “aggressive but achievable,” President James F. Jones, Jr., said, “Our educational mission has never been more important and we are grateful to have such passionate and loyal alumni and parents, whose participation as donors and volunteers place them among the most engaged in the nation.”

Jones was alluding to Trinity’s financial record-setting year in 2006-07.  The College achieved several objectives, including a 3-year, 60-percent increase in the Trinity College Fund, which supports the College’s operating budget, and an unprecedented 10,748 alumni, or 56 percent, contributing gifts to the College.  In addition, parents set new records for total gifts and the number of donors, while more than 90 percent of graduating seniors contributed to their class gift for the second consecutive year.

The goals of the “Cornerstone Campaign for Trinity” are organized in three broad categories of support:

• $50 million for The Trinity College Fund, which supports the daily operations of the College, including academic and extra-curricular programs, financial aid, and maintenance of the campus.

• $215 million to build Trinity’s endowment, currently at $441 million, with a 5-year goal of reaching $750 million. The endowment represents long-term, invested gifts that provide permanent underwriting for many of the College’s key priorities.
             Of the $215 million, $100 million will be earmarked for financial aid, including $65 million for need-based scholarship endowments, $20 million for Presidential Scholars to attract and retain students with exceptional intellectual promise, and $15 million for financial aid for international students.
           Also, $90 million will be set aside for faculty and academic programs, with $40 million going toward the establishment of 16 endowed chairs, $35 million for College programs, and $15 million for collaborative Urban and Global Programs and Studies.
           Twenty-five million dollars will be general endowment in support of the College’s operations.

• $85 million for campus improvements so that Trinity can better facilitate teaching and learning. Philanthropy sought in this area will contribute to the expected $195 million investment in campus facilities that include the current renovation and restoration of Trinity’s signature Long Walk buildings, technological improvements in existing classrooms, and intended new facilities for the arts and sciences now in the planning stage.

Said Paul E. Raether ’68, chairman of the Board of Trustees, “This campaign is all about enhancing opportunities that sustain and, frankly, improve what Trinity has been doing well for a very long time.  Institutions that stand still lose ground. Trinity is an exciting place to be right now.”

Early campaign success is already providing resources for several Trinity priorities.  For instance, 8 new endowed chairs have been funded in the past 15 months.  Support from the Mellon Foundation and College donors has underwritten more than half of the permanent endowment sought for Trinity’s new Center for Urban and Global Studies, officially inaugurated on October 19, which better links Trinity, Hartford, and the College’s 8 Global Learning Sites.  It is the first center at a U.S. liberal arts college to have an integrated urban-global name and focus.  Additionally, Trinity Trustee Mitch Merin ’75 has funded new scholarship opportunities for gifted Hartford students to attend Trinity.  Seven Merin Scholars have already been named for 2007-2008.

In addition to the $350-million goal for the “Cornerstone Campaign for Trinity,” the College also hopes to build long-term commitments into its endowment through an additional campaign to raise $50 million in will, trust and other estate provisions.

The three Trinity alumni co-chairing the Campaign are: E. Thayer Bigelow, Jr. ’65, P’99; George A. Kellner ’64; and Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh ’80.

Trinity is targeting June 2012 as the completion date for the campaign. For more information, please visit www.trincoll.edu/GivingToTrinity/Campaign.

back to top