W&L Completes Successful Fundraising Year
Washington and Lee University received $39.3 million in new gifts and pledges during the 2012–13 fiscal year and has raised $424.2 million, as of June 30, toward the $500 million goal of its capital campaign, Honor Our Past, Build Our Future: The Campaign for Washington and Lee.
With two years left before it ends on June 30, 2015, the campaign remains on target, according to Dennis Cross, vice president for advancement at W&L. The campaign began in July 2008 and had a public kickoff in October 2010.
The $39.3 million in new gifts and pledges represents an increase of 22 percent over the previous year; 69 percent of those gifts came from W&L alumni.
The total cash received for 2012–13, which includes payments on previous pledges, was $75.1 million, an increase of 47 percent over 2011–12. Fifty-two percent of the total was added to the University’s endowment.
The University’s Annual Fund received a record $8.72 million, an 11 percent increase from the previous year and the first time in history that the fund has exceeded $8 million.
As components of the Annual Fund, both the Parents Fund and the Law School Annual Fund reached milestones. The Parents Fund received a record $1.36 million, a 24 percent increase over the previous year’s record of $1.1 million, while the Law School Annual Fund surpassed the $1 million mark for the first time with $1,017,109 raised.
In addition, the rate of undergraduate alumni participation in giving to the University exceeded 50 percent for the second year in a row at 53.7 percent, exceeding last year’s 51.38 percent. That increase also met The Generals’ Challenge, a multi-year effort to raise participation by the undergraduate alumni to 55 percent by June 30, 2015.
“This has been an extraordinary year in the support of Washington and Lee,” Cross said. “W&L is widely known to be blessed with hundreds of volunteer leaders and thousands of loyal undergraduate and law alumni, enthusiastic parents who value the education their sons and daughters receive, and friends who appreciate what W&L has long stood for: honor, community, tradition and academic excellence. Our students benefit directly and significantly from the generosity of the University’s supporters each year and over the generations.”
Cross noted that 42 percent of W&L’s annual operating budget comes from the new gifts made or from income earned by endowments established over the generations.
“It’s hard to imagine how we could provide the personalized W&L experience without this support and the sacrifices of so many over the years,” he said. “Our donors and volunteers are true partners in a Washington and Lee education today.”
W&L’s campaign has targeted five priorities, with the largest segments designated to support people and programs. The biggest goal — $160 million — is to raise funds to recruit and support students through need-based aid.
News Contact:
Jeffery G. Hanna
Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs
jhanna@wlu.edu
(540) 458-8459
