Stay Classy, Juniatians
Grads of 1963 Blast Gift Record into Stratosphere
I
t had to be like one of those eye-popping moments where life exceeds expectations. Like hitting a big jackpot on the 50th try on the slot machine, or unexpectedly finding the secret level to score big points in a video game.
Juniata
Or raising $1,407,763.63 (we write it out to give you the full impact) for a Juniata 50th Reunion Class Gift where the previous record for a donation for an entire class was a bit over $350,000. Welcome to the Juniata Fundraising Hall of Fame, Class of 1963. (Note: There is no Juniata Fundraising Hall of Fame for donors who are now wondering why they haven’t been recognized. We just made it up.)
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The large endowment will be targeted for the Class of 1963 Scholarship, which is set up to provide financial aid for firstgeneration college students. Eventually, much of the $1.4 million endowment will provide numerous scholarships to people who are the first in their family to go to college. “I think what resonated so deeply with this class is that what they were raising funds for connected with them in a personal
way,” says Kim Kitchen, executive director of development. “Over 50 percent of the class were first-generation students. Members of the class wrote letters that they shared with the class about how they were the first members of their family to attend college.” Of course there were other factors that resulted in delivering an endowment roughly four times larger than
previous class gifts. First, the gift is designated for the College’s endowment, which means gifts can be deferred in a series of payments or as estate gifts. “If the 50th Reunion gift was for a building project, which many of the previous reunion gifts had been, then the gifts could not be deferred,” Kitchen says. Second, the ’63ers are one of the most engaged