Centennial Campaign

The Home Stretch

Photo by Leah Nash

Reed's Centennial Campaign reaches a key milestone.

By Randall S. Barton

As alumni know, Reed provides a full-body immersion in the liberal arts and sciences that is unlike any undergraduate experience in the world. The Centennial Campaign is advancing this mission and preserving Reed’s independence by partnering with alumni, friends, and foundations to establish financial resources and seek support. To date, 11,696 donors have stepped forward to help the Centennial Campaign achieve over $185 million toward our $200 million goal. This report highlights some of the campaign’s successes.

Building Community

A true community of scholars should know no bounds, but for some students, the financial barriers to a Reed education are daunting. Scholarships provide access for the most qualified applicants and increase diversity. Last year, 52% of Reed students received some form of financial aid.

The Centennial Campaign has allowed Reed to provide more scholarships than ever before.

  • Donors have contributed more than $52 million for scholarships for domestic students.
  • The 2010–11 financial aid budget, which includes funds from the restricted and operating budgets, has increased 65% since the beginning of the campaign, from $12,790,264 to  $19,636,000.
  • Donors have contributed more than $2.3 million for scholarships for international students, whose needs are generally greater than those of domestic students.
  • Last year 275 current students gave money to a scholarship fund for an incoming freshman.

Furthering Inquiry

The hallmark of a Reed education is broad exploration in human knowledge balanced with in-depth study in an academic discipline. Small classes allow faculty to mentor students and engage with them in individual discussions.

  • Donors have contributed $20 million toward the $30 million goal to support new faculty positions.
  • In addition to strengthening small departments, reducing chronic over-enrollments, and meeting curricular needs, the college has moved close to its longstanding goal of a 10-to-1 student-faculty ratio. The addition of 13 full-time faculty positions brings the student-to-faculty ratio down to 10.23 to 1.
  • Donors have contributed more than $8.8 million for endowments for existing faculty positions. Endowed professorships confer special recognition, provide money to support research, strengthen academic departments, and serve as lasting tributes to the people after whom the professorships are named.
  • The campaign has inspired $8 million in gifts to enable faculty research, hire professional lab assistants, and acquire materials and equipment.

In the Spotlight

More than half of all Reed students take classes in the performing arts. In November 2011, construction began on a 70,000-square-foot performing arts building on the west slope of campus that will house the music, dance, and theatre departments. This new teaching facility, due for completion in time for classes in the fall of 2013, will provide state-of-the-art classrooms, appropriate rehearsal spaces, a studio theatre, and a black box theatre.

  • The cost of this facility is $28 million. Reed will fund half of the cost, $14 million, through fundraising, and the remainder through a bond issue.
  • Members of the board of trustees have given or pledged, in aggregate, more than $7 million to the performing arts building.
  • Alumni, foundations, parents, and friends have committed $2,979,684 to this initiative. The college seeks another $4 million in gifts.
  • A generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation enabled the college to add faculty and expand academic offerings in theatre, music, and dance. The $1.5 million foundation grant was matched 3:1 by $4.5 million in gifts from alumni and friends, resulting in a total of $6 million.
  • Thanks to gifts and grants, Reed added one new faculty position in music and two half-time positions in theatre and dance.
  • Gifts and grants also allowed Reed to add a performing arts librarian position and programmatic improvements in the dance department.

Upholding Integrity: unrestricted support

The Annual Fund subsidizes the immediate needs of today’s students and enables the college to respond to a challenging economy while upholding the quality of a Reed education.

  • 60% of Reed’s operating budget comes from tuition, with the Annual Fund and income from the endowment making up the majority of the remaining 40 percent.
  • In fiscal year 2011, the Annual Fund totaled $3.6 million, up from $2.7 million seven years ago—a 33% increase.
  • Parent giving has increased 34% over the past six years, and the number of parents giving $1,000 or more has increased 43 percent.
  • The overall number of donors giving leadership ($1000+) gifts to the Annual Fund continues to grow, from 481 in 2005 to 732 in 2011.
  • Young alumni (the 10 most recent class years) participation in giving back to Reed is at a new record high. The number of young alumni donors is up 84% from five years ago.
  • Estate gifts ensure Reed’s ability to provide a superb education in the liberal arts and sciences. Bequest gifts have been largely responsible for building the college’s unrestricted endowment to provide longterm institutional strength and resilience.
  • Since the public launch of the campaign in April 2009, the college has received $30,643,670 in realized bequests, including more than $18 million from the estate of David Eddings ’54.
  • 50 new members have joined the Eliot Society by naming the college in their will or trust. There are more than 500 members in the Eliot Society.

Reed’s long history of educational excellence has always relied on generous financial support. Philanthropy continues a tradition initiated by Amanda Reed when—upon signing her will—she founded a college dedicated to spirited inquiry and rigorous scholarship in an atmosphere of intellectual honesty.