Final Class Gift Mailing
With the memories of a wonderful 50th Reunion weekend still fresh in our minds, I wanted to reach out to all of you one last time (I promise!) to report the final numbers for our Total Class Gift and for our Class Gift Purposes.
Our Total Class Gift consists of all gifts and pledges made to Williams by our Class in the ten years between our 40th and 50th Reunions. Our Class has generously supported the College in many different ways during that period of time, including through the Alumni Fund, named scholarships in honor of family members, faculty, coaches, administrators, and students, the Williams College Art Museum, the Chapin Library and the Sawyer Library, among others, as well as the 50th Reunion Fund.
You may recall that as of dinner on Friday evening of Reunion Weekend our Class Gift total was about $9.8 million. I am happy to report that when all gifts and pledges that came in on or before June 30 are counted, our Total Class Gift amounts to $10,120,795. Of that total, we raised $3,211,200 towards our two Class Gift Purposes with $2,219,871 designated for the Class of 1973 Career Exploration Internship Fund and $991,329 for our Class of 1973 Memorial Scholarship. The Total Class Gift also includes $1,406,853 in gifts and pledges to the Alumni Fund and $5,502,742 in other gifts and pledges to the College.
Thanks to all of you who contributed to this total in all of these different ways. Over 80% of the Class participated in our Class Gift.
And special thanks to the ten classmates who stepped up on Friday evening and Saturday morning with gifts and pledges that pushed us over the $10 million mark.
As I said several times over the weekend, we as a Class have much to be proud of in our generosity to Williams and our support for future generations of Williams students.
Tom Lee
50th Reunion Fund Chair
50th Reunion Class Gift
May 30, 2023
Dear Classmates:
This will be my last appeal for money – I promise! And time is running out so I will keep this short and sweet.
In less than 10 days we will gather to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our graduation from Williams. As of today, more than 175 of you have registered to attend. That turnout alone will make this Reunion a wonderfully successful event.
On Saturday, June 10, we will announce our 50th Reunion Class Gift. We are closing in on $10 million for our Total Class Gift with almost $2.9 million of that designated for our two class gift purposes, the Class of 1973 Career Exploration Internship Fund and the Class of 1973 Memorial Scholarship.
Many of you have already contributed or pledged to the Alumni Fund, to named scholarships, or to other important purposes at the College, and I very much appreciate that generous support. As of last Friday, 117 of you, or about 36% of our living classmates, have contributed or pledged to one or both of our class gift purposes over and above the Alumni Fund.
Speaking for myself, the procrastination skills I perfected over four years at Williams have only improved marginally over the last 50 years. If you are considering, contemplating, or even thinking about supporting our class gift purposes, now is the time to do it! Any gifts or pledges received by June 9 will be included in the amounts we announce on June 10. In particular, I would love to announce that at least 50% of the Class supported our Class Gift purposes.
Think of it this way. Every $100,000 we raise for our Class Internship Fund will support an internship each year for one financial aid student in perpetuity, and if we reach our goal of raising $2.5 million for the Internship Fund, that will support 25 financial aid students each year in perpetuity. That kind of support will have a lasting impact on Williams students now and into the future.
Full details on our class gift are on our website.
You can make an outright gift or a pledge payable at any time over the next five years.
You can also designate Williams as a beneficiary in your will or estate plan, through a charitable gift annuity, a charitable remainder trust, or a life insurance policy.
You can donate online at https://give2.williams.edu/1973.
You can also fill out a pledge form online.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, thomashenrylee2@gmail.com or 215-779-1394, or Mark Robertson ’02 at the college, mroberts@williams.edu or 413-597-4024.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the Reunion.
Tom Lee
50th Reunion Fund Chair
Recording of Class Gift Zoom calls:
Zoom Call with Liz Creighton ’01, Dean of Admission & Student Financial Services - Liz discussed the importance of financial aid to Williams in attracting exceptional students from a broad range of backgrounds, including students from middle- and low-income families, who could not otherwise afford to attend Williams. The need for financial aid is even more important now that Williams has gone to all grant financial aid and eliminated from all financial aid packages requirements for student loans and campus and summer jobs. You can view the recording of the call at:
https://williams.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a20ce93f-c6f8-4c77-8ef6-af510034664c
Zoom Call with Don Kjelleren, Executive Director of the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, about the need for and value of providing support to financial aid students who want to pursue unpaid or low pay internships. You can view the recording of the call at: https://williams.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=aedda1a5-b719-486d-a445-af43001cc8f4
Class of 1973 50th Reunion Class Gift Overview & Ways to Give with the Williams Gift Planning Team - They explain the various ways in which you can make a gift to Williams, either now or in future. You can view the recording of the call at:
https://williams.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=1c176f49-562c-4b4c-b1b9-af4a002712cd
Create a Legacy
Consider a Planned Gift for our 50th Reunion
Click HERE to read the brochure
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Update on the Class Gift - 19 Oct. 2022
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Here's what we are doing and have already done!
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Dear Classmates:
Although it may seem hard to believe, we will gather in Williamstown next June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our graduation from Williams. That weekend presents an opportunity for us to see old friends, to reconnect with classmates we may not have seen in years and, perhaps, to connect with classmates we might not have known very well.
As importantly, our 50th Reunion provides an opportunity for us, as a class, to have a lasting impact on Williams and its students through our 50th Reunion Class Gift. I write today to share exciting news about that opportunity.
Gift Purpose Selection Process
Starting last Fall, the Class of 1973 50th Reunion Class Gift Committee – which included myself, Ken Bate, Steve Cohen, Bill Cunningham, Larry Heiges, Mary Schendel, Di Hole Strickler and Chris Zook – took on the task of identifying an appropriate purpose for our 50th Reunion Class Gift. The Committee first agreed on criteria for our gift purpose selection: a gift that would have a high potential and lasting impact on the College and its students, that would address the needs and priorities of the College and that would, hopefully, enjoy widespread support from our classmates.
As part of our Committee process, we reviewed the College’s June 2021 Strategic Plan (https://www.williams.edu/strategic-planning/strategic-plan-2021/) and met, either in person or virtually, with various College representatives, including the President of the College, the College Provost, the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and the Executive Director of the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, among others. Committee members also reached out to many of you seeking your input and ideas.
Our 50th Class Gift Purposes
After much discussion and consideration, the Committee ultimately concluded that the most effective way in which we, as a class, can impact the lives of Williams students both today and into the future is through two initiatives:
(1) Establishing The Class of 1973 Career Exploration Internship Program, an endowed fund to support unpaid or low-pay internships for Williams students that would allow the students to explore potential career opportunities during the summer or the school year
(2) Increasing the endowed fund that supports our Class of 1973 Memorial Scholarship established for our 25th Reunion.
Why Support Internships?
The Strategic Plan recognizes that experiential education and career exploration have become increasingly important components of a Williams education. Approximately 94% of Williams students do at least one internship during their undergraduate years, and almost 80% of participating students describe internships as moderately to extremely influential in determining their post-graduate plans. Our gift will provide an opportunity for students, particularly those on financial aid, to take advantage of unpaid or low-pay internships for the purpose of career exploration by providing financial support to those students.
Even though a number of existing endowed funds support internships in a variety of specific areas – e.g., government, healthcare, science – the demand exceeds the resources currently available. Our fund will not be limited to any one subject area, thus maintaining flexibility to meet student interests as they may change in the years to come. Current Williams students receiving support for internships through the ’68 Center for Career Exploration are required to submit a report on their internships each year. Those reports are available on the College website (https://careers.williams.edu/asip/) and reflect the broad range of internships pursued and the value of those internships to the students.
Why Support Scholarships?
Financial aid continues to be a critical part of what Williams offers that allows the College to recruit and admit the best qualified students from a broad range of backgrounds, experience, circumstances and geographic locations. Recently, the College became the first college or university in the country to go to all-grant financial aid, eliminating the need for students to work or take out student loans as part of their financial aid package. Among other things, this will allow students the option of pursuing educational opportunities during the summer rather than working to pay for school. Many of us in the Class of 1973 benefitted from financial aid while at Williams, and approximately 52% of current Williams students receive some form of financial assistance from the College.
As part of our 25th Reunion Class Gift, our class established the Class of 1973 Memorial Scholarship in memory of our classmates who had passed away. That Scholarship has had an important impact on Williams students over the years, supporting 22 different students, some for multiple years, and providing in excess of $800,000 in financial aid to those students.
Unfortunately but inevitably, the list of classmates honored by our class scholarship has grown since our 25th Reunion, and we can further honor them all by increasing the number of students our class scholarship supports.
After the Committee reached its conclusion, the 50th Reunion Planning Committee unanimously approved and endorsed the recommendations.
Next Steps
Starting this Fall, I will be asking each of you, if possible, to support one or both of our class gift purposes in a personally meaningful way. This gift would be above and beyond your annual support for the Alumni Fund. Your support of the Alumni Fund remains critically important to the College, and I urge all of you to continue to support the Alumni Fund. In the coming months, I will be sharing with you various ways in
which you can support the class gift both now and in the future as well as more details about the impact we can have at Williams through our contributions.
Stay tuned, and I look forward to being back together with you all next June in Williamstown. In the meantime, if you would like to discuss the 50th Reunion Class Gift, feel free to contact me at thomashenrylee2@gmail.com or 215-779-1394.
Tom Lee
Chair, Class of 1973 50th Reunion Fund Committee