The College of William & Mary is setting new records as it works toward raising $1 billion by 2020 through its For the Bold campaign.
In Fiscal Year 2016—which concluded June 30—the college raised $143.1 million, the most ever in a single fiscal year, according to a news release.
Since the leadership phase of the For the Bold campaign began in July 2011, the university has raised nearly $578 million. The university has raised more than 100 million annually in the past four years and had broken a record last year when $105.8 million was raised.
“The William & Mary community is rallying behind For the Bold with enormous enthusiasm and powerful effect,” said William & Mary President Taylor Reveley in a statement. “This is crucially important to W&M’s excellence in the 21st century. Philanthropic support for our operating budget has now overtaken state support. It is increasingly and flatly central to our future.”
The recent fundraising record was broken with help from the 18,258 alumni who donated to William & Mary in FY 16. This total sets a new record for alumni participation—28.7 percent—and “solidifies its status as the No. 1 nationally ranked public university in the U.S. for undergraduate alumni participation,” according to the release.
The class ambassadors program, which includes representatives from the Class of 1959 through the Class of 2016, and robust programming from the Alumni Association are credited with encouraging alumni giving.
The university has set a goal of 40 percent alumni participation in the For the Bold campaign, which Matthew Lambert, vice president of university advancement, called “the most audacious goal we’ve set for ourselves.”
“When we achieve this, it will put us in the same league as the top three nationally ranked universities in the U.S. that all have one thing in common — an enormously loyal donor base,” Lambert said in a statement. “I cannot stress enough that alumni participation matters because it impacts the value of a William & Mary degree — and therefore the marketability of alumni in the workforce — and ensures that the university has the necessary resources to offer a high-caliber and transformational education for all time coming.”
Click here to learn more about the For the Bold campaign.
