President Reveley Explains Campaign to Students

Dear Students,

Robust drum-beating and bugle-blowing accompanied the public launch of William & Mary’s fund-raising campaign last October. The deed was done in a Great White Tent pitched on the Sunken Garden. Thus, you know your alma mater is working hard to:

1. Strengthen alumni ties to one another and to the university,
2. Increase the rate of participation in annual giving by undergraduate alumni to 40%, and,
3. Raise $1 billion.

Our campaign is scheduled to end on June 30, 2020. We have already raised over $550 million, and our participation goal for annual giving this year is 30%.

This is a frisky effort. No other public university as small as W&M has tried to raise a billion dollars. And no university, public or private, without either a medical or engineering school has tried to do it (medicine and engineering have unusual allure for donors). Further, among leading universities, only Princeton, Dartmouth and Notre Dame have annual giving participation rates among their undergraduate alumni greater than 40%. Thus, our campaign really is “For the Bold.”

Some of you have asked me why are we doing this? How does philanthropy work? Here's my explanation of the campaign.

Taylor Reveley