The College received a record-breaking $325.4 million in gifts and commitments in the 2014-15 fiscal year, the College announced on July 15. This total exceeds last year’s by 27 percent. The Dartmouth College Fund and the annual funds for the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck Business School also broke records this year.
Almost 43 percent of Dartmouth alumni contributed for the fiscal year, which ended on June 30.
Most of the money raised will go toward implementing the new academic clusters, endowing professorships and increasing the number of scholarships awarded. In addition to these proposals, the money will fund the transformation of residential clusters, an important part of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy.
Three of the four largest gifts will create academic clusters in applied mathematics, globalization and health care delivery. Each of these fields will host three new faculty members.
Donors endowed 15 professorships for both current and future faculty members, which will recognize faculty for their teaching and scholarly work.
Donations also contributed to the King Scholars Program, which was established by Dottie and Bob King ’57 in 2013. Four additional King Scholars, students from developing countries who are passionate about global poverty alleviation, will arrive in September, adding on to the six scholars who have already matriculated. The donations will allow the program to eventually grow to 24 students.
Past donations have led to the creation of living-learning communities, such as the Triangle House and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network in Residence.
Ashley Manning ’17, the undergraduate advisor for the Japanese language floor for the fall of 2014 and the winter of 2015, expressed how placing people who were interested in Japanese language and culture on the same floor fostered a community.
“They all loved watching anime and playing Japanese board games,” Manning said, “So what they’ve been doing alone, they were able to do in a community.”
Several different classes broke reunion records as well as participation records this year. The Class of 1955 at their 60th reunion gave $1,164,655, breaking its previous record of $800,054. The Class of 1960 and the Class of 1994 gave $1,207,229 and $1,745,105 respectively, surpassing previous records as well. Meanwhile, The Class of 1960 and the Class of 1979 broke participation records, with over 67 percent of each class donating.
One way that alumni were able to contribute was talking to a GreenCorps associate. GreenCorps, which operates out of the Dartmouth College Fund, consists of students who call alumni to solicit donations.
Yingna Wang ’17, who previously worked for GreenCorps, said she received many positive comments from alumni who said they would be thrilled to contribute.
“I once talked to an alumnus who was upset because he forgot to donate last year, breaking his streak of annual donations,” she said. “It’s amazing to see how dedicated people are in giving back to Dartmouth.”
Many alumni also join societies and groups, such as the Bartlett Tower Society, which grants membership to alumni who have either donated to the College or included Dartmouth in their estate plans. It has more than 220 alumni members. Sixteen women joined the Centennial Circle of Dartmouth Alumnae, with commitments of $100,000 or more to go toward student scholarships.
The Tuck School of Business Annual Fund broke a new giving record of $6.4 million.
“Dartmouth is extremely grateful for this reunion-year giving,” College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote in an email.
The donations, she wrote, reflected the time and effort of many staff and alumni, as well as the charitable alumni contributions.
