Where Your Gift is Needed: Achieving Initiatives through Endowment
Strengthening Alma’s endowment ensures the kind of sustainability that allows us to remain focused on our mission of offering opportunities to students, forward-thinking in our execution of programming and responsive to the changing needs of our students and our times. The Open Windows Campaign represents one of our most concerted efforts to solidify Alma’s endowment to broaden current initiatives and ensure future possibilities.
Your investment in the Campaign components will create remarkable benefits now and in the future. The major components:
- Center for Responsible Leadership
- Academic Opportunities
- Enhanced Facilities
- General Endowment
- ALMA FUND
- Estate Gifts
I. The Center for Responsible Leadership
Goal: $11,000,000
This Center is at the very core of applied liberal arts. Alma graduates face a world of difficult choices, a world with complex relationships and rapidly changing issues. The Center for Responsible Leadership helps ensure that we instill in our students the intellectual and personal discipline necessary to make these choices. Included in this programming are:
- Core Programs
- Business Leadership Fellows Program
- Public Leadership Service Fellows Program
A. Core Programs; $5,000,000
These Programs are open to all students over the course of their four years. Leadership opportunities will require the exercise of progressively more developed leadership commitments and skills. Those students who participate in these Programs will be awarded a Leadership Certificate upon graduation.
B. Business Leadership Fellows Program; $3,000,000
This component of The Center programming will ensure that students majoring in the liberal arts and sciences disciplines have the opportunity to develop leadership skills specifically relevant for the business world, as well as the values and commitments critical for ethical leadership.
C. Public Service Leadership Fellows Program; $3,000,000
This component of The Center programming will help students bridge the knowledge and skills from their majors to opportunities for responsible leadership in government, non-governmental organizations and the non-profit sector.
II. Academic Opportunities
Goal: $4,000,000
- Collaborative Research Program
- Premiere Fund for the Arts
- Initiative for Academic Innovation
A. Collaborative Research Program; $2,000,000, including $1,000,000 for The Dr. M.J.J. Smith Collaborative Research Endowment
This Program provides opportunities for students to engage in faculty-mentored research. Research can be done year-round, on or off-campus, including during Spring Term. The Dr. M.J.J. Smith Endowment will provide additional opportunities for history and pre-law students to focus on research specific to their studies.
B. The Premiere Fund for the Arts; $1,000,000
This Fund promotes excellence and engagement in the fine and performing arts. It will bring exceptional artists to campus, underwrite artistic performances and ensure first-rate conditions for the performance and display of art on campus.
C. The Initiative for Academic Innovation; $1,000,000
This Initiative will support faculty study, on and off-campus, allow for the implementation of new classroom teaching techniques and facilitate the creation and delivery of linked-courses — courses that combine the study of multiple disciplines.
III. Enhanced Facilities
Goal, $4,750,000 (a significant portion of which has been funded)
- Wright Hall
- McIntyre Mall
- Hogan Center
A. Wright Hall; $4,000,000
Alma’s environmentally-friendly residence hall was completed in January 2005. The modern apartment-style hall features geothermal heat pumps, energy-efficient windows, solar heating panels, and energy-efficient showers and laundry facilities.
B. McIntyre Mall; $250,000
The renovation of McIntyre Mall was completed in August 2004. A focal point on campus, McIntyre Mall provides a central space for gathering, reading or studying.
C. Hogan Center; $500,000
Renovating the Hogan Center will better meet the needs of fitness and education. This project will remodel the lower level of the Hogan Center. It will increase the space available for athletic training and rehabilitation, as well as redistribute the locker room facilities into more functional spaces.
IV. General Endowment
Goal: $4,500,000
These components include:
- Endowed Chairs
- Professorships
- Academic Programs
- Named Endowed Scholarships
- Scholarships to Support Spring Term Travel Experiences
- General Endowment
A. Endowed Chairs
Endowed Chairs are prestigious and enable the College to attract and retain outstanding faculty. They can be established in any academic department, and the selected professor retains the honor until retirement.
B. Professorships
An endowed Professorship enables the College to provide additional financial support for selected faculty, thereby strengthening specific academic programs. The faculty member carries the title for the academic year.
C. Academic Programs
Gifts to endow specific academic programs enable the College to develop additional academic programs. Such endowments can be directed to library acquisitions, performing arts groups, the Model United Nations program, as well as any academic major or minor.
D. Named Endowed Scholarships
These Scholarships honor an individual or an entire family and begin at $10,000. The ongoing funds help Alma attract and retain quality students.
E. Scholarships to Support Spring Term Travel Experiences
A hallmark of the Alma Experience is the rich variety of intensive Spring Term study options. These scholarships assist students who cannot afford an off-campus experience, enabling them to extend their boundaries for learning.
F. General Endowment
Endowment income provides a stable source of revenue, ensures long-term growth and offers a buffer against economic change. A strong endowment is vital for keeping an Alma education affordable.
V. ALMA FUND
Goal: $5,000,000
The ALMA FUND supports the annual costs of operating the College. It is an annual campaign that raises unrestricted monies that help support scholarships, facility maintenance, academic departments, new programs, faculty salaries and technology.
VI. Estate Gifts
Goal: $6,000,000
Including Alma College in one’s estate plans enables donors to provide ongoing support for scholarships, capital projects, new programs and technology and annual operating expenses. Gifts can include gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, lead trusts and pooled income funds.
