Photo courtesy of Conn Coll website.
In just two days, over 3,000 donors pledged more than $350,000 to help Connecticut College win a $500,000 challenge gift sponsored by Brad Brown P’12 ’15 ’20, Rob Hale ’88 P’20, Zoe Klein Henriquez ’99, and Raj Vig ’93 and an additional $250,000 stretch grant sponsored by several current and former members of the College’s Board of Trustees as part of the College’s fourth annual Founders Day fund drive. At an event in Shain Library celebrating the success of the challenge, Vice President for Advancement Kimberly Verstandig stated that 2,500 people gave to the College online, the highest number of donations the College has ever received via its website in a single 48-hour period. Verstandig estimated that the College would receive around 3,500 donations in total when her office finishes processing phone and mail-based pledges. She noted that some donors had not supported the College in a long time; about 50 online donors had not given to the College in almost 20 years.
The challenge has raised over $1 million for the 2018-2019 Connecticut College Fund through the generosity of individual donors and challenge gift supporters, which will be used to support areas of greatest need this year. Additional online donors gave around $50,000 for financial aid and $25,000 for athletics.
This year’s challenge marked a significant departure from previous Founders Day fund drives, which previously have lasted for around a month. The 2018 Founders Day Challenge ran for 34 days and raised money from 2,556 donors, earning the College a $100,000 challenge gift from Trustee Emerita, Susan Lynch ’62. When asked about the ambitious decision to shorten the Challenge’s official length to two days, Verstandig noted that the decision to do so stemmed in part from the high level of generosity expressed by the donors of the original $500,000 challenge gift. Verstandig noted that she and her colleagues were overwhelmed by the support of the Conn community that ultimately led to the Challenge’s success this year.
Declan Rockett ’20, who attended the Founders Day tea celebrating the success of the fund drive, noted that he was both surprised and glad that the College was able to receive so much support from its donors in such a short period of time. Jordan Westlake ’22 who also attended the event noted that she liked the Camel pride aspect of it.
