Wellesley Completes Record-Setting Fundraising Campaign, Raises More Than $500 Million—One Year Ahead of Schedule
Today, the College announced a record-setting conclusion to its ambitious campaign to advance the Wellesley Effect. On June 30, 2018, the College completed the largest fundraising effort ever undertaken by a women’s college, one full year ahead of schedule. In all, a goal-shattering $514,485,911 was raised to support Wellesley’s mission to educate and empower the next generation of women leaders who will shape their communities and change the world.
“This campaign will touch the lives of countless Wellesley students, present and future,” said Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley College, “and strengthens the College across all dimensions.”
“Thanks to the unflagging support of our campus community as well as alumnae, parents, and friends of the College,” Johnson added, “this historic achievement is a remarkable testament to the critical leadership role Wellesley continues to play in the world.”
Introducing the “I am the Wellesley Effect” video series
Meet Rinako Sonobe ’20, a Wellesley student who brings to life the idea of the #WellesleyEffect. Sonobe’s story is the first in a series of five videos, launching today and in the coming weeks, that illuminate the impact of the campaign on campus. In her “I am the Wellesley Effect” video, Sonobe focuses on what the reimagination of Pendleton West, where she spends so much of her time, means to her as an artist and a scholar. Thanks to generous campaign gifts, the new arts center in Pendleton West brings together new and traditional disciplines, promoting creative dialogue and collaboration across the arts.
Funds raised through the campaign will advance Wellesley’s world-class academic program, including curricular and pedagogical innovation across disciplines as well as faculty and student research and scholarship. The campaign has increased support to Wellesley’s financial aid—making the College more accessible to greater numbers of bright young women. It has made possible major new initiatives like Wellesley’s award-winning Career Education, which supports and empowers students and alumnae to envision and achieve their full potential in every field imaginable. The campaign has also helped renew the important campus spaces shared by everyone that are critical to a residential college’s thriving community—the physical embodiment of the Wellesley experience.
In these and many other ways, the generosity and the impact of this successful campaign—celebrated and illustrated on a special new microsite—will be felt on campus for years to come.
