$20 Million Challenge Grant Completed Ahead of Schedule

In April 2003, an anonymous donor presented BB&N with an exciting opportunity - and a challenge. If BB&N could raise $20 million from other donors to support the School's building and endowment priorities, the donor would make a gift of $10 million, for a total of $30 million in new philanthropic support. It was this magnificent gift and challenge that set plans in motion for a capital campaign to address significant needs, already identified by previous planning efforts, for new and renovated facilities on the Upper School campus and a substantial increase in endowment for faculty, financial aid, and general operations.

Conditions established by the donor were particularly strict: not only did the challenge need to be met within three years, or by June 2006, but no more than half of the total could be in gifts designated for the school's building priorities, and at least $10 million of the $20 million in new gifts had to be received in commitments of $1 million or more. Considering that only three gifts at this level had been received in the School's last campaign which ended in 2000, this would be quite a task for the BB&N community, but one that it was prepared to undertake with great enthusiasm.

And on November 5, 2005, at the public kickoff of the Opening Minds Campaign, there was tremendous excitement when Board Chair Stephen Woodsum (P'06,'08,'10) announced that the $20 million Challenge had indeed been met - and eight months ahead of schedule. With the announcement that evening of a grand total raised to date of $35,192,582 - representing all new capital gifts and pledges received since April 2003 and two years of giving to the Annual Fund - it was clear that the donor's intent to use the Challenge to stimulate a new level of philanthropic support at BB&N had been realized.

This remarkable achievement gave the Board of Trustees the confidence to approve a higher Campaign goal than had originally been thought possible: $62 million, including $26 million for endowment, $26 million for the Upper School Building Project, and $10 million over five years for Annual Operating Support. Significant challenges remain in order to meet these ambitious goals, but the generosity of donors who responded during the Campaign's “quiet phase,” stimulated in part by the anonymous Challenge Grant, gives us confidence that we will succeed.