Corporate & Foundation Gifts

Generous gifts from Wellesley’s corporate and foundation partners help to advance institutional priorities—from scholarships funds and faculty support, to forward-thinking initiatives and modern facilities for science, the arts and new media, sustainability, and global affairs.

The following list provides a sample of recent institutional grants of $50,000 or greater awarded to Wellesley College. For more information, contact Karen Ossen, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, at 781.283.2261 or kossen@wellesley.edu.
 

The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program

Announced in September 2012, Wellesley College is one of ten higher education institutions to partner with The MasterCard Foundation in the launch of a $500 million education initiative that will provide talented, economically-disadvantaged students from developing countries—particularly from Africa—with comprehensive support for quality and relevant secondary and university education.

George I. Alden Trust

In September 2011, the George I. Alden Trust awarded Wellesley $50,000 to support the creation of a versatile, computer-ready group-study/seminar room in the Focus area of the College's Science Center. This project will enhance teaching and learning in the sciences while helping to make science more visible to all visitors to the Science Center.

American Council on Education and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

In June 2012, Wellesley received a $100,000 award for its innovative work in faculty retirement from the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. ACE and the Sloan Foundation highlighted Wellesley’s efforts to ensure retiring faculty can develop a legacy, smoothly transition into retirement, and remain involved in the academic community post-retirement, among other practices, as exemplary. The award will provide for further enhancements in the experience of retired faculty.

Hearst Foundations

In December 2011, the Hearst Foundations awarded Wellesley $100,000 to create the current-use William Randolph Hearst Scholarship Fund. Over three years starting in 2013, the Fund will provide one to two William Randolph Hearst Scholars each year with financial aid grants of up to $35,000.

Henry Luce Foundation

The Clare Boothe Luce program, administered by the Henry Luce Foundation, has been instrumental in providing private support for women in science, mathematics and engineering. In July 2008, Wellesley received a five-year, $595,110 grant to establish a Clare Boothe Luce Professorship. This grant supports Computer Science Professor Orit Shaer, who joined Wellesley in spring 2009.

Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund

In June 2012, Wellesley received $165,000 from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund to upgrade the security systems of the Davis Museum, installed nearly 20 years ago in 1993. Free and open to the public six days a week, the Museum has in recent years drawn a rapidly expanding audience to such internationally significant shows as spring 2011’s El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa. The grant will allow the Museum to safeguard the 11,000 objects from around the world in its care and continue to serve as a cultural gem and educational resource at the College and for the surrounding Metro West community.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

In June 2012, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Wellesley $700,000 to support a visiting artist residency at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, amplifying the Center’s role as a laboratory for interdisciplinary discourse. The award also supports the shared appointment of a Portuguese language instructor at MIT and Wellesley. A response to Wellesley students’ request for this language offering, this new post will bring instruction in this strategic language of 236 million speakers, the sixth most spoken in the world, to Wellesley for the first time in the College’s history.

Also in June 2012, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Wellesley $500,000 to support the Art Department and the Davis Museum’s collaborative initiative to enhance the College’s study of the rapidly developing field of new media art. The grant provides for the joint appointment of a new media art curator-lecturer who will lead faculty and students in explorations of the ever-expanding cultural, social, and aesthetic possibilities of technology today.

In June 2011, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Wellesley $55,000 to advance the Babson-Olin-Wellesley Three-College Collaboration. The grant will help to advance initiatives in the arts and new media while also ensuring that the joint curricular effort, the sustainability certificate, truly integrates the methods and content of the liberal arts with business and engineering by examining human effects on the natural world in all their social, cultural, historical, and ethical contexts.

In April 2011, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Wellesley $700,000 to support the appointment of post-doctorate fellows in foreign languages, literatures, and cultures. The addition of these fellows will help Wellesley to strengthen its program of first-year seminars while also providing the college with much-needed flexibility as it assesses faculty needs in the language departments.

Bernard Osher Foundation

In April 2011, the Bernard Osher Foundation awarded Wellesley a gift of $1 million to endow the Osher Reentry Scholars Program, which provides scholarship support for students enrolled in the Elizabeth Kaiser Davis Degree Program. The Foundation also provided a $50,000 bridge grant to provide scholarship support in the 2011-2012 academic year.