Bowdoin’s From Here Surpasses Ambitious Campaign Goal, Raises $542.8 million.
From Here, Bowdoin College’s campaign to raise $500 million, has surpassed its ambitious goal with funds that provide essential support for the College’s core priorities of ensuring access and opportunity, providing an excellent and transformative liberal arts education, and preparing students for lives of meaning and purpose.
With gifts and pledges from nearly 20,000 alumni, parents and families, and friends of the College, Bowdoin raised more than $542.8 million, largely for financial aid, the academic program, and career exploration and development programming, along with some important additions to the main campus and the Schiller Coastal Studies Center in Harpswell.
“This is the largest campaign in Bowdoin’s history and is a monumental achievement for the College,” said Bowdoin College President Safa Zaki.
“It will support everything we do here together, including our commitment to excellence in the liberal arts, to the common good, and to making a Bowdoin education financially accessible to our current and future students. It is a testament to the generosity and participation of so many valued alumni, trustees and former trustees, and friends of the college, to whom we extend our deepest gratitude.”
The campaign launched in July 2018 with three important promises. The first—that family income will never be a barrier to attend the College or to a full Bowdoin experience—was the largest of three central components and drew $157 million in current and future commitments that will help Bowdoin remain one of only eight colleges and universities to be need-blind and no-loan and to meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students. Financial aid resources of this scale are essential to one of Bowdoin’s core missions to hold the door open for talented young people, regardless of their ability to pay the full cost of tuition.
Bowdoin’s financial aid packages factor in costs beyond tuition, room, and board—they also estimate costs for travel and books, for laptops and winter coats, and for the unforeseen. This comprehensive aid, bolstered by $19 million raised through the campaign, levels the playing field and helps provide all our students with a Bowdoin experience—not just a Bowdoin education.
The campaign delivers on its second promise—of an enduring and transformative liberal arts education seeking to build on the traditions of personal learning and disciplinary knowledge— with $96 million for the academic program, including endowment for new professorships and other positions.
Promise three—to give students the opportunities and resources to land their first great job and to build a career that surges and sails and soars—raised $19 million toward expanded programming within the Office of Career Exploration and Development (CXD), including for skill development and exploration and to fund internships across every industry.
Approximately $350 million of the campaign total is earmarked for the endowment and, of that, most of it is restricted for financial aid and the academic program. In fact, nearly half of Bowdoin’s endowment is permanently restricted by donors to the support of student financial aid. Other distributions restricted by donors are used to support professorships and instruction, lectureships, museums, the library and book purchases, and technology.
While the campaign was primarily for endowment, approximately $32 million was earmarked for construction related to the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, the Roux Center for the Environment, Barry Mills Hall, and restoration and renovation at Bowdoin’s historic Whittier Field complex, all of which have been completed.
“This achievement reflects a tremendous breadth and depth of generosity at many different levels, said Interim Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Scott Meiklejohn.
“We have more than 550 commitments of $100,000 or more, and more than 19,000 others generously supported the College in ways that are meaningful and appreciated, both with their financial support and their volunteer time and energy. The Bowdoin community can be proud of the way it has turned out to strengthen a foundation for future generations of Bowdoin students.”
Zaki and Meiklejohn also recognized the work of the Campaign Leadership Committee, chaired by trustees Sydney Asbury ’03, John McQuillan ’87, and Scott Perper ’78, and expressed their gratitude for the generosity of trustees past and present, who together gave 38 percent of the total amount raised.