Bates College | The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values

On July 18, 2006, Bates announced the successful completion of its largest fundraising campaign, The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values, which surpassed the $120 million goal set in September 2000. The campaign raised $120,897,820 from 18,813 alumni, parents and other supporters — more than twice the total raised in the previous campaign, which ran from 1992–1996.

People around the world with a Bates connection gave time, energy, and resources to help the campaign succeed. “When I came to Bates, tackling a campaign of this magnitude was essential and urgent, but required a leap of faith,” said President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “Our success affirms how much we can accomplish when we work together to sustain shared values, and how deeply our community believes in the importance of a Bates education.”

Exemplary Board leadership was a constant in the campaign with all trustees making gifts, totaling $34.1 million or 28 percent of the total. Providing strong leadership were trustees Joseph T. Willett '73 and Thomas A. Renyi P'97, P'04, co-chairs of the campaign, and Burton M. Harris '59, P'89, chair of the Board of Trustees.

The Campaign for Bates enjoyed the leadership of, from left, Elaine Tuttle Hansen, president of the College; Burton Harris '59, chairman of the Board of Trustees; and trustees Joseph Willett '73 and Thomas Renyi P'97, P'04, who served as campaign co-chairs.

“Surpassing the $120 million goal is a terrific achievement," said Willett and Renyi, crediting the "great planning and legwork" of Vice President for College Advancement Victoria Devlin and the entire Advancement office, as well as "the leadership and continuous stewardship of the Campaign Committee, and the loyalty and support of thousands of alumni, parents and friends."

The Campaign for Bates raised funds for the College’s most pressing needs: scholarships; faculty support and academic quality; unrestricted endowment; the Bates Fund; and campus revitalization and new facilities.

Campaign donors established 33 additional endowed scholarships, and added $23.5 million to endowment funds earmarked for scholarships.

During the campaign, total expenditures for faculty salaries rose by 36.6 percent and campaign revenues expanded support for faculty research and sabbaticals. In 1999, 11 faculty members took sabbaticals versus 20 in 2006. Named professorships were endowed in music, the classics, economics and biology.

Students benefited directly from campaign support as well. Student research funds increased by 30 percent, and in 2006 156 students received College grants for research. A breakthrough gift from trustee David S. Barlow '79 greatly expanded study-abroad opportunities for Bates students. An early campaign milestone was the $1.7 million endowment of the Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Center for Community Partnerships, which oversees service-learning and other programs that bring students into the community.

Campaign gifts enabled Bates to begin work on three new facilities projects: a new dining Commons, the Bates Walk, and a residential village adjacent to Rand Hall. Donors made possible the renovations or repurposing of the Dunn Guest House on Mountain Avenue; the Marcy Plavin Dance Studios and Bert Andrews Room in Merrill Gymnasium; and the Little Room for student activities in Chase Hall.

Unprecedented numbers of Bates people got involved during the campaign, claiming Bates as their own. A total of 900 volunteers helped to further campaign objectives, including an energetic 40-member Campaign Committee. Staff and volunteers made 2,138 personal visits, organized 145 campaign-related events, and visited 40 states over the course of the campaign.

“Bates definitely improved its fundraising capabilities through this campaign, and we’re ready to do it again when we need to, thanks to the long-lasting, valuable relationships built with our alumni and our friends," noted Bates trustee Bruce E. Stangle '70, who, along with wife Emily Siegel Stangle '72, was among the 27 donors who gave $1 million or more to the campaign. "It’s extremely gratifying to have reached our goal, but we have to continue raising money even when we aren’t in a campaign — we can’t take our foot off the pedal.”

Between 2000 and 2006, the Bates endowment grew from $198.3 million to $233,693,670. Alumni, parents and friends increased annual giving to the Bates Fund by 49 percent. Late in the campaign, trustees posed the Big Bates Challenge, offering to match the entire amount given by new donors to the Bates Fund's Mount David Society, as well as any increase that existing donors made over past gifts. 3,332 donors took the challenge, earning $1,136,477 from the Board of Trustees.

Members of the Benjamin Bates Society. Click on image for a full-screen image.

A milestone in the history of philanthropy at Bates, the Benjamin Bates Society was established in 2005 to recognize donors whose lifetime gifts have topped $1 million. Membership in this society, named for the businessman who was the College’s first major benefactor, stands at 43 households, with 21 members reaching the million-dollar threshold during the campaign period.