The Kenyon Fund builds a stronger college for students and professors. Gifts to the Kenyon Fund reduce reliance on endowment income. The result: greater resources for students and professors, now and in the future.
Kenyon has balanced its budget for forty-six years in a row. At the core of this fiscal winning streak is responsibility, discipline, a commitment to keeping Kenyon strong — and also the Kenyon Fund. The Kenyon Fund plays a crucial role in supporting the operating budget, every year.
Because of Kenyon Fund gifts, the extraordinary becomes customary. Great professors. Small classes. First-rate labs and seminar rooms. Magnificent public spaces. It's all quintessentially Kenyon — and it's all supported by the Kenyon Fund. Join your fellow alumni and help the College accomplish even more.
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, approximately 8,300 donors made annual gifts via the Kenyon Fund and the Kenyon Parents Fund. Ranging in size from under $25 to more than $50,000, these contributions provided over $5.1 million to support the needs of Kenyon faculty and students.
Here are ways your gift to the Kenyon Fund makes a difference.
Gifts in this area support teaching, learning, and a curriculum firmly grounded in the traditional liberal arts and sciences. Gifts help Kenyon attract excellent professors, maintain a 10:1 student-faculty ratio (and thus keep classes small), expand research and other enrichment opportunities for students, and provide ample, up-to-date resources for laboratories and classrooms. You may designate your gift for a particular major or program.
Annual gifts in this area give Kenyon the flexibility to direct funds to parts of the budget that need critical, immediate support. Every gift in this category has significant impact, because it results in keeping the Kenyon experience strong across the board.
Gifts here support the athletic and recreational activities that large numbers of students value and depend on-for health, personal growth, a balanced life, and leadership opportunities. Funds benefit our twenty-two varsity sports (eleven for men, eleven for women), more than a dozen club sports, the popular intramural program, and the ever-expanding fitness and recreational offerings based in the Kenyon Athletic Center.
The special character of the Kenyon experience is deeply tied to the College's extraordinary natural environment. Kenyon's campus is recognized as one of the most beautiful in the world, and gifts in this category help keep it that way. Funds go toward maintaining Middle Path along with the College's many gardens, preserving our historic buildings, and protecting the rural character of the lands surrounding the campus. In addition, gifts to this area will help make Kenyon more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Funds will support a host of projects addressing this increasingly important priority. Among them: electric vehicles, campus-wide recycling, the composting of food waste, high-efficiency appliances, sophisticated energy monitoring and control, an energy-generating elevator, low-flow water devices, citrus-based cleaning products. Solar arrays will likely join the list soon.
Gifts here enable Kenyon to hold firm to a fundamental commitment: that qualified students should be able to attend the College regardless of their family finances. Approximately 50 percent of all students at Kenyon receive some form of financial aid. In 2016-17, the average aid package totaled $43,000. Countless Kenyon "success stories" involve students who could not have considered the College without financial aid. Annual gifts make these success stories possible. Hannah More Scholarship: A special financial-aid initiative of President S. Georgia Nugent, the Hannah More Scholarship is awarded to first-generation students—that is, students who are the first in their family to attend college. This life-changing scholarship is named for one of Kenyon's earliest benefactors and in keeping with her legacy of leadership.
*We can count gifts in these areas for the Kenyon Fund or Kenyon Parents Fund because they fall into categories of the College's annual budget. By definition, annual-fund gifts are "budget-relieving." Kenyon depends on these gifts: they make up 5 percent of the College's annual budget.
Every gift counts: Gifts of less than $100 make the key difference in boosting participation. You may be able to effortlessly increase your support through your employer's matching-gift program.
Consistency counts: We can sustain high participation rates and make a bigger difference if you give every year.
Calling youth: More than 30 percent of Kenyon's alumni graduated in the last ten years. It's crucial that young alumni give to the Kenyon Fund, because their loyalty will play a key role in guaranteeing that Kenyon remains strong.