W&L Launches $650 Million Capital Campaign Leading Lives of Consequence campaign to fund key priorities that enable the transformative power of a W&L education.

Office of Communications
October 28, 2024

Washington and Lee University announced on Friday, Oct. 25, the launch of a $650 million comprehensive capital campaign, Leading Lives of Consequence: The Campaign for Washington and Lee. The university begins the public phase of its campaign, which is the most ambitious fundraising effort in W&L’s 275-year history, having already raised more than $475 million toward its $650 million goal.

The Leading Lives of Consequence campaign will underwrite initiatives outlined in the university’s Strategic Plan that enable Washington and Lee to offer a truly exceptional education. It will provide the resources to attract and support top-quality students and faculty, invest in its innovative liberal arts and legal curriculum, expand athletic and recreational opportunities, and provide first-rate facilities that support its mission.

One of W&L’s key initiatives, implementing a need-blind admissions policy, was at the forefront of the campaign kickoff events on Thursday, Oct. 24, when Washington and Lee President Will Dudley announced a $132 million lead gift from alumnus Bill Miller ’72. Miller’s extraordinary gift, which is the single largest in the university’s history and one of the largest dedicated to financial aid at any liberal arts college, allows W&L to implement a need-blind admissions policy for all undergraduate students while maintaining its existing commitments to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need and to do so with aid packages that do not include loans. W&L becomes one of a small number of highly selective colleges and universities able to do all three.

“The liberal arts education I received from Washington and Lee instilled in me values and habits of mind that have enriched my life and are the basis of much of my professional success,” said Miller. “I am pleased that this gift will make the same education attainable for students who share W&L’s core values of honor, integrity, and civility and who bring different points of view, life experiences, and talents that will contribute to a fuller and richer college experience. Being need-blind will allow Washington and Lee to attract the most highly sought-after students with a simple and powerful message: Your financial circumstances, however modest, will not prevent you from attending W&L. I hope my gift will inspire others to support this outstanding university.”

“One of our important aspirations is to enrich our community by enrolling the most capable students we can find, from all walks of life, who are drawn to our distinctive values and educational opportunities,” Dudley said. “I cannot overstate the impact of Bill’s gift on W&L and its students. We are incredibly grateful for his generosity, which will allow Washington and Lee to practice need-blind undergraduate admissions, now and forever.”

Read more about Miller’s historic gift on W&L’s news website, The Columns.

The Leading Lives of Consequence campaign represents a powerful investment in Washington and Lee, and in the students and teachers who contribute to and benefit from the university’s educational excellence. The funding priorities — all of which will advance W&L’s mission — fall into five primary areas: Community, Curriculum, Citizenship, Campus, and Continuity.

Community — The campaign directly supports the personal and professional development of W&L’s students, faculty, and staff. Initiatives include endowing undergraduate and law scholarships to enroll the strongest students and ensuring that every student who comes to Washington and Lee can participate fully in all the university has to offer, including study abroad, summer internships and research projects, and public interest legal work.

Curriculum — The campaign will allow Washington and Lee to continue to offer one of the best educational experiences in the country. Initiatives include funding ongoing investments in the scope and quality of W&L’s interdisciplinary curriculum, which teaches students to develop creative solutions to complex problems; providing resources to support the success of our law students; and expanding programming in our academic centers.

Citizenship — Washington and Lee is committed, as a university, to being a good citizen in Lexington and beyond, and the campaign supports the university’s mission to prepare graduates to be engaged citizens in a global and diverse society. Initiatives include investment in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs that foster leadership, service, and civic engagement; support for enhanced sustainability efforts; and funding for the new museum of institutional history, which will be an educational resource not only for the campus community but also for the public.

Campus — The campaign supports improvements to the university facilities that are critical to the quality of Washington and Lee’s academic, athletic, and artistic programs. Initiatives include a new Williams School building and complete renovation of Huntley Hall; the new Lindley Center for Student Wellness; renovations to Lewis Hall; a new Admissions, Financial Aid and Conference Center; expansion and upgrades to the Science Center; a renovated golf course that can serve as an athletic facility for W&L’s varsity teams and physical education classes; a softball field and program that increase opportunities for female athletes; and improvements to Wilson Hall rehearsal spaces.

Continuity — The university will continue to grow the W&L Fund, which provides almost 8% of the university’s annual operating budget and subsidizes a portion of every student’s education. The goal for total annual giving over the course of the campaign is $100 million, toward which the university has already raised $54.5 million.

Much has already been accomplished. In addition to implementing need-blind undergraduate admissions, the university has raised nearly $30 million to endow scholarships at the School of Law – exceeding the original goal and notably increasing the law school’s ability to compete for students of the highest caliber. In just the last few years, the university has created the Houston Harte Center for Teaching and Learning and the Class of ’94 Center for Inclusion and Engagement, expanded and renovated Elrod Commons dining, and redone Wilson Field and the field hockey turf. Construction is well underway on the Williams School building and the Lindley Center, both of which are scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.

“$650 million is an ambitious goal, and thanks to W&L’s extraordinarily loyal and generous alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends, we will be successful,” said Susan Wood, Washington and Lee’s vice president for advancement. “We have already raised $475,322,391, but even more gratifying is that those funds came from more than 21,500 individual supporters. I am confident that we will achieve our goal, thanks to the enthusiastic support of the W&L community.”

Washington and Lee’s campaign is chaired by emeritus trustee Billy Webster ’79, and the campaign’s executive leadership committee includes Ward Davenport ’01, Baker Gentry ’88, William Hill ’74, ’77L, Annie Estrada Postma ’04, Ellen Rogowski P’17 and Lizanne Thomas ’82L.

“By launching this comprehensive capital campaign, we are saying publicly, for all to hear, that we support the university’s strategic plan and priorities and that we will provide the essential support necessary to continue to offer future generations the same or better educational opportunities and life-changing experiences that we were privileged to enjoy and benefit from ourselves,” said Webster. “As stewards of this university, it is our collective obligation to see that our students get the full value of a world-class liberal arts education as part of a community bound together by the common values of honor, civility, integrity, respect, and character.”

“Washington and Lee’s motto, Non Incautus Futuri — not unmindful of the future — expresses our commitment to honor the past as a source of inspiration to direct our own efforts for the benefit of those who will follow us in the decades and centuries to come,” said Dudley, who has presided over the highest level of donor support in the university’s history since he was sworn in as W&L’s 27th president in 2017. “We have done a lot of work, there is a lot of work in progress, and there is a lot of work yet to do. This campaign will allow us to accomplish it — all of it — in the service of our mission.”

For more information about the campaign priorities, initiatives, leadership, and more, visit the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign website.