The College's $425 million Will to Excel capital campaign has raised 64.6 percent of its goal just two years into the five-year drive, according to the campaign's second annual report released last week.
According to the report, the drive has raised $274.6 million as of June 30.
"The goals of the Will to Excel Campaign are to increase the endowment of the College and support building projects," said John Hays, director of development.
So far, the campaign has helped fund the construction of the new Collis Center and the completion of Burke Laboratory.
As part of the College's collection efforts, 585 volunteers from regional fund-raising campaigns around the country visited Hanover last weekend for the annual Volunteer Leadership Conference.
"The main purposes of the conference are to provide a sense of where we are in our campaign goals, and to offer inspiration to the volunteers by bringing them back to the College and having the alumni recreate their student experience," said Stan Colla '66, director of the College's Alumni Fund.
During the three-day conference, the volunteers went on tours of the facilities and attended fund-raising workshops, award ceremonies, seminars and receptions, which included more than 70 speakers.
Faculty members conducted many of the seminars. Topics ranged from social issues to the challenges that face the Dartmouth community.
"The general reaction of the alumni to the conference is a sense of pride and enthusiasm for the College," Colla said. "They feel that the education here is focused, and therefore worthy of support."
The Will to Excel began with a $128 million gift credit to the campaign in 1990 and the initiation of a five-year public phase in October 1991.
For the second year in a row, the Alumni Fund set a record for the number of contributions to the College.
Some of the highlights of this year's report include a record total of nearly $13 million from 27,463 donors. Of those donors, 22,813 are alumni, which indicates a 52.6 percent participation rate.
The Class of 1923 and the Class of 1953 set new donation records for their recent reunions. The Class of 1923 raised $171,021, a record for the 70th reunion, and the Class of 1953 raised $1,001,953, a record for the 40th reunion.
"There is a lot of positive and supportive reaction from alumni," Hays said. He attributed the campaign's success to the College's "legendary high level of alumni support."
While the Will to Excel campaign is ahead of schedule and surpassing its own expectations, Campaign Chair Richard Page cautioned against becoming too optimistic.
"We must not lose sight of the special effort needed to realize growth in endowment funds to support the campaign's faculty and academic program objectives," Page wrote in the campaign's report.
Page wrote that "the campaign serves to nourish the entire Dartmouth community."
