Eileen Keeley, VP for College Relations at Davidson College, discusses a fundraising campaign that raised $555 million, exceeding its $425 million goal. The final year alone brought in $106 million. She credits the college's four-year student experience for inspiring alumni giving and points to new scholarships and the Shinobori sculpture as tangible results.
Hi, I'm Eileen Keeley, Vice President for College Relations at Davidson College. Fiscal year '19 was the last year of our campaign. We raised $555 million in the campaign overall. Our goal was $425 million. In the last year, we raised $106 million, which was $25 million more than any other previous year. So we kind of knocked it out of the park. The secret begins, at least with our alumni, with a 4-year experience at Davidson. And Davidson is a place where people's lives are transformed. And as a result of that, they want to give back. I think beyond the numbers, it's really walking around on campus every day and seeing students and knowing that that student is here because of the scholarship that got created as part of the campaign, or that that sculpture, that amazing, beautiful Shinobori sculpture, for example, is here as a result of the efforts that we put into the campaign. With the pandemic and the economic challenges that are resulting from that, I think our path forward is harder. It's almost like a wartime philosophy of everyone coming together on the fundraising side, sharing stories and sharing resources and Remaining connected with each other will be an important part of our path forward, and I think there's hope at the end of it.
