Babson College has announced the launch of the $200 million “Babson Rising” campaign – the school’s largest fundraising effort ever.
The quiet phase of the campaign, begun in July 2004, has raised more than $65 million, accelerated by a 2005 gift of $20 million from Jan and Bob Weissman.
The Babson Rising campaign focuses on raising funds to provide need- and merit-based scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, attract and retain top-notch faculty, boost support for Babson’s centers and institutes that promote entrepreneurship and global business management, and expand student life opportunities.
“Babson takes people with enormous energy and marries them with superb teachers. This prepares students to go out into the world to make things happen, to increase the wealth and quality of our society in a way that very few institutions can,” said Campaign Chairman Bob Weissman ’64, H ’94, P ’87, P ’90, president of Shelburne Investments and former CEO of Dun & Bradstreet. “Babson Rising is an outstanding investment opportunity in the future.”
“Great schools never stand still,” said Babson President Brian M. Barefoot ’66, P ’01. “Our challenge is to significantly strengthen what makes Babson special—the way we prepare our students to be entrepreneurial leaders who can succeed anywhere in the world.”
The four campaign priorities are:
· Student Scholarships and Fellowships: Motivating and enabling the best and the brightest undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds to come to Babson -- $62 million
· Faculty Excellence: Recruiting and retaining exceptional faculty -- $78 million
· Global Management and Entrepreneurship: Making it possible for Babson students to succeed in the highly competitive global economy of the 21st century -- $45 million
· Student Life: Ensuring that students’ experience outside the classroom is as stimulating and creative as the one they enjoy in class -- $15 million.
Babson announced the campaign at a gala celebration attended by more than 1,000 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends at the InterContinental Boston Hotel on October 19, 2007.
For more information about Babson Rising, visit www.babson.edu/babsonrising or contact Richard Voos, Vice President for Advancement, voos@babson.edu.
