Emma Willard in the News
Girls' School Launches Historic $75 Million Campaign
April 5, 2007
mma Willard School, the oldest girls’ school in the United States, recently launched the public phase of a $75 million fundraising campaign titled The Emma Willard Idea: Empower a Girl, Transform the World. The ambitious five-year campaign—which began its leadership phase in 2004 and will conclude in 2009—has already raised $46 million in prior commitments, including record-breaking gifts of $10.5 million in 2004 from the Avenir Foundation and a $17.3 million bequest by a 1923 graduate in 2005.
“From now through 2009, we are bringing the most ambitious campaign in our history to our alumnae, parents, and friends,” Head of School Trudy Hall said in announcing the campaign’s launch. “Our goal is to increase Emma Willard’s endowment and current funding so that we can pursue every possible avenue for educating girls powerfully for the world they will inherit.”
The campaign’s theme, “Empower a Girl, Transform the World,” articulates its overarching objective to continue meeting the school’s mission of providing students with unparalleled opportunities to prepare to serve and shape their world. The Emma Willard Idea will support four priorities:
- Endowment for Scholarships ($20 million): To attract an even greater and more diverse range of motivated and talented students.
- Endowment for Faculty Excellence ($20 million): To assure that there is no better academic community in which our faculty can do their impressive work.
- Endowment for Unrestricted Purposes ($25 million): To permit Emma Willard the flexibility it will need to move forward with an exceptional array of programs and a campus fit for the 21st century.
- Support of Annual Fund Giving ($10 million): To strengthen giving by expanding the number and size of gifts made to the Annual Fund.
The campaign’s public phase was announced at a special ceremony on Friday, February 23, a date chosen specifically for its significance within the school. The school’s founder, Emma Hart Willard, was born on February 23, 1787, and on that date in 1907 one of the school’s greatest benefactors, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (Troy Female Seminary Class of 1847), presented the Board of Trustees with a $1 million gift to establish the stunning campus on Mount Ida in Troy, New York.
“This is a noteworthy day not only for us, but also in the history of education,” said Mariana Stroock Leighton, Class of 1955, chair of the Board of Trustees. “Madame Willard was a bold visionary, an enterprising political player, a scholar, author, and teacher. By championing women’s right to equal education, she transformed our culture and our world.”
Public information about The Emma Willard Idea, is available at www.emmawillard.org/giving/campaign or from Larry Lichtenstein, Director of Advancement, at (518) 833-1779 or e-mail at llichtenstein@emmawillard.org.
Founded in 1814, Emma Willard School is a college-preparatory boarding and day school for girls, serving more than 300 students in grades 9 through 12 and the post-graduate year. To schedule interviews or find out more about The Emma Willard Idea, contact Steve Ricci at sricci@emmawillard.org, (518) 833-1785.
