All-school gift joins two goals

At the Sesquicentennial Birthday Celebration on Thursday, Feb. 3, Vassar followed cake with a gift. This year, in lieu of separate senior and sophomore class gifts, members of all four classes have joined forces in the creation of the 2011 All-School Gift, which will support the Annual Fund and, with two matching donations, amount to over $165,000.

"In recent years, [the gifts] have been chosen to support some important priority of the College," said President Catharine Bond Hill, introducing the Senior Gift Committee Chairs and Class of 2011 President Moe Byrne. She mentioned the fleet of shared pink bicycles and the repair of the bell atop Main Building, both of which were provided by recent class gifts.

Hill then handed the podium over to co-Chair of the Senior Class Gift Committee Aaron Grober '11 who announced that in honor of Vassar's 150th year the entire student body would sponsor a gift for the College. The Senior and Sophomore Class Gift Committees combined into a single All-School Gift Committee that also includes representatives from the freshman and junior classes. The gift of a major contribution to the Annual Fund, said Grober, would further the Committee's three priorities: supporting Vassar, sustainability and community building. "The Annual Fund makes the Vassar experience possible by supporting every aspect of the College," said co-Chair of the Senior Class Gift Committee Becca Rose '11. The Annual Fund is also one of the main three tenets of the $400 million "Vassar 150: World Changing" campaign.

The All-School Gift is unusual both in that it is a combined gift from all of the classes and in that it does not support a single unified project. "People like really specific gifts," said Class of 2011 President Moe Byrne '11, "[but] for us, it was about leaving the legacy of something we can add to year after year." The All-School Gift Committee has accounted for possible confusion about the nature of the All-School Gift in their fundraising strategies. "People will have questions because its an unconventional gift," said co-Chair of the Sophomore Class Gift Committee Louise Dufresne '13. "We'll be going door-to-door and talking about why it's important." The All-School Gift will also have a table in the College Center at which donors will be able to write why they contributed to the gift and post their statement on the wall.

As part of the gift, the Annual Fund will now specifically support a mission of sustainability. A new designation, or "bucket," of the Annual Fund went into effect on Feb. 3, allowing contributors to the Fund to set aside their donation for sustainability projects. Each year funds from these designated gifts will be allocated by the College Committee on Sustainability, a joint committee chaired by Professor of Earth Science Jeff Walker.

Designations were added to the Annual Fund in 1995 to support six areas of the college: Vassar's Greatest Needs, The Library Program, Campus Preservation. Faculty Salaries and Research, Scholarship, Residential Life and Athletics. Director of the Annual Fund Jonathan B. Smith '07 wrote in an e-mailed statement that these designations support "areas of the College of infinite need—we can never raise enough money for them."

Sustainability is the first designation added to the Annual Fund since the original six were created in 1995. Smith wrote, "The Class of 2011 has shown a strong commitment to sustainability and understands that it broadly impacts every aspect of the College's operation, which is why it is a perfect fit for the Annual Fund."

According to Byrne, this part of the gift is the most significant to the senior class because it reflects its own priorities, and coming to this conlcusion for the All-school gift was not without its challenges. "I think it was a struggle for us to make our voices as students and as seniors come through in this pivotal point of our College's history," said Byrne. "We didn't want to lose the opportunity to capitalize on the sesquicentennial." According to Byrne, the theme of the gift reflects the legacy the Class of 2011 wishes to leave behind while the all-inclusive scope speaks to the significance of the year for all students.

While the end dollar amount of the gift is large, the number that is perhaps the most important to students is participation. The 2011 All-School Gift Committee has set the goal for 1861 students to participate by giving to the gift, a significant number as Vassar was founded in 1861. To achieve this goal and as a result the $150,000 matching gift, 77.5 percent of the student body will have to make a contribution to the All-School Gift.

"That's $1,000 for every year in Vassar's history," Grober reminded students in his announcement. The Committee has set an even higher goal for the Senior Class, which they hope will reach a participation level of 80 percent. If the Class of 2011 can meet or exceed their participation goal, an anonymous alumna or alumnus has pledged to give $15,000 to the Sustainability designation of the Annual Fund.

With a potential total of $165,000 in matching gifts, the 2011 All-School Gift is poised to be the biggest student gift the College has ever received. It would be at least twice as large as the Class of 2010 Senior Class Gift, which raised $68,070—including matching gifts—to create the 2010 Endowed Scholarship. But to the senior class, the creation of a Sustainability designation in the Annual Fund may be the most important aspect of the gift. According to Smith, in just this acheivement, "The senior class can be proud of the legacy that they are leaving behind at Vassar."