Saint Anselm College closed its $50 million fundraising campaign Dec. 31, 2004, six months ahead of schedule and $5 million ahead of projections.
College President Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., announced the closing of The Campaign for Saint Anselm College on Dec. 2, 2004, at the annual President's Society dinner in Boston, with nearly 400 trustees, alumni and friends of the college present.
The campaign started five and a half years ago with an aim of raising $30 million. Under the direction of Jim Flanagan, vice president for college advancement, fundraising went well enough to set a $40 million goal and later increase it to $50 million.
"It was a very large number for Saint Anselm College," said Fr. Jonathan. "We undertook the campaign because we needed to better our endowment. One of the things that makes a college good is financial stability. I think we also felt there were some things that we did not have which are the marks of a good college."
The campaign has increased the college's endowment from $40 million to $62 million, a figure that will continue grow as pledges are realized in the coming three to five years.
The endowment now includes $27 million for 173 endowed scholarships. And the campaign brought the first endowed chair in the college's history, theRichard L. Bready Chair for Ethics, Economics and the Common Good.
Campaign gifts helped build the Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, which opened in September 2003 and provides home ice for the Saint Anselm hockey teams. The multi-purpose arena even served as a venue for the 2004 commencement ceremonies. A portion of a $5 million unrestricted gift from Robert and Miriam Smith, of Gilford, N.H., helped build Sullivan arena.
In addition, a $500,000 gift from trustee and alumnus Michael Sheehan and his wife Maureen established The Frederick and Claire Sheehan Endowed Faculty Fund for Portraits of Human Greatness, the college’s humanities program.
More than 6,000 alumni, parents and friends contributed to the campaign, which includes a dozen gifts of $1 million or more.
At the Dec. 2 dinner, in fact, Trustee Richard Bready, who graduated from Saint Anselm in 1965, surprised Fr. Jonathan with a $1 million check. With that, he fulfilled a pledge made by he and his wife, Cheryl, to fund the endowed chair.
Most recently, an anonymous $1 million bequest was made to the Alva de Megan Chapel Art Center to support acquisitions for its permanent collection.
Bready also helped the college raise $500,000 in scholarships by matching gifts up to $250,000. The “Bready Challenge” resulted in 88 new annual scholarships awarded to students this academic year.
“This campaign has succeeded beyond our greatest expectations, and while large gifts make for impressive announcements, I also want to express my gratitude for every single gift that got us here today,” said Fr. Jonathan. “Our collective efforts form a promise to our students, faculty, staff and alumni that this college will continue to strive for excellence in all that it does.”
The trustees who chaired the campaign were alumni Michael Sheehan, chairman of the board of trustees and president/CEO of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, of Boston; J.J. Healy, founder of Healy Capital in San Francisco, and Robert Weiler, past chair of the board of trustees and president/CEO of PhaseForward Inc., in Waltham, Mass.