Fellow Alumni:
I am pleased to report that our annual giving efforts were successful once again! Total dollars raised by the Kenyon Fund reached a new high this past year of $3,538,784 - an increase of 3 percent over last year. It would take an additional $80 million in endowment to generate the annual income that alumni and friends provide the College through the Kenyon Fund. It is abundantly clear from this statistic that the Fund is very important to the day-to-day activities of the College.
I’m also pleased to report that 41 percent of alumni made a gift to Kenyon this year, up from 40 percent last year. The number of alumni who support the College has become an important measurement in higher education over the past couple of decades. U.S. News and World Report uses it in their calculations as a bellwether of alumni satisfaction with their education. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s consider it as a measure of the financial stability of an institution when determining bond ratings, and many foundations request it as part of the grant making process. As a result, alumni participation to the Kenyon Fund is just as important as the monetary amount donated, and Kenyon is grateful for every single alumnus and alumna that contributes.
Recognizing the importance of alumni participation to the health of the College, the Kenyon College Board of Trustees have pledged to give an additional $50 for each alumnus or alumna who makes a gift to the Kenyon Fund this year. That means if we reach our goal of 7,700 alumni contributors, or 45 percent alumni participation, the trustees will contribute an additional $385,000. Your gift at any level helps the College directly through budgetary support as well as indirectly by increasing our participation rate.
Thank you to all of our generous contributors and our loyal volunteers. Kenyon would not be the same without you.
Kristin Ann Meister
Chair, Kenyon Fund Executive Committee