Earlham College Announces $60 Million Campaign

While alumni were on campus commemorating their class reunions and enjoying Homecoming, the Earlham community had even more reason to celebrate. Earlham College announced its most ambitious fundraising campaign ever — a $60 million initiative entitled Purpose and Passion: The Campaign for Earlham. At the alumni lunch on Saturday, Board of Trustees Chair Debbie Hull announced that throughout the planning and leadership phase of the campaign, the College has already raised more than $41 million toward that goal.

The objectives of Purpose and Passion: The Campaign for Earlham are to strengthen five key areas — the Earlham Fund, facilities and resources for the arts and for the sciences, faculty professional development, and student financial aid.

Specifically, the campaign will strengthen the impact of the Earlham Fund, the College's annual giving program that addresses its most pressing needs, to at least $1.75 million annually. The campaign will provide funds to build Earlham's first dedicated arts facility on the south side of campus, while also renovating existing arts spaces in Runyan Center. The sciences at Earlham will benefit from the campaign through the construction of a three-story, 38,000 square foot addition along the western face of Stanley Hall — phase one of a three-phase master plan for renewing all of Earlham's science facilities.

Purpose and Passion: The Campaign for Earlham will allow the College to support the recruitment and professional development of its faculty, while also funding new faculty members to establish their own curriculum and research agendas in the first years of teaching. Finally, the campaign will increase Earlham's ability to offer scholarship aid to talented students with financial need.

Earlham President Doug Bennett emphasizes that it's time for Earlham College to be bold — to set such ambitious goals — even in the face of an uncertain financial landscape.

"In the spirit of candor that is so much a part of Earlham, I'll tell you what this campaign is about: The quality of what we do here is unbelievably high, but we're doing it on a frame that's too fragile," Bennett said.

"Historically at Earlham we've been shy talking about money. We shouldn't be. We're an unusual and valuable institution, but just like everyone else, we live in the real world. To be that institution in the real world requires real resources, real money."

However, Bennett knows that this campaign is much more than the bottom line, a belief shared by Campaign Steering Committee Chair John Loose '64.

"When I talk about the importance of money to an institution like Earlham, I'm thinking of people," Loose explained. "I'm thinking of students who come to Earlham — as I did — with a strong sense that Earlham is right for them, but without the resources to pay in full the College's tuition. I'm thinking of professors who have a singular influence on the life of these students, and sometimes on the shape of the culture or the future of a field of knowledge."

Earlham College isn't only striving to meet the campaign's dollar goals. It hopes to encourage more alumni participation in fundraising — from recent graduates who give their first annual gift of $25, to alumni leaders capable of much larger gifts.

"To me, this campaign will succeed if it brings forward a shared sense of responsibility for the Earlham community," Bennett said. "We're all in this together."

Loose agreed. "In a very real sense, Purpose and Passion: The Campaign for Earlham is a call to every member of Earlham's community, past and present. It's a reminder that we all stand together. We're responsible for each other."

Fundraising for Purpose and Passion: The Campaign for Earlham will continue through the next few years as the College strives to meet and exceed the $60 million goal. Throughout the campaign, the latest news and progress updates may be found at the campaign Web site at www.earlham.edu/campaign.