The College yesterday released the breakdown of funds raised by the five-year Will to Excel capital campaign -- the most successful fundraising effort in Dartmouth's history although it failed to meet all of its goals.
Director of Development Lucretia Martin said the campaign, which ended Oct. 7, raised $568,229,430 through donations from 59,863 contributors.
The campaign's original goal was $425 million but the College raised its goal to $500 million last fall. The campaign surpassed its original goal by 34 percent.
The campaign's goals included increasing the College's general endowment as well as raising money for current-use funds, scholarships, professorships, new facilities and Dartmouth professional schools.
Although the campaign exceeded its fundraising goals for professional schools, a handful of goals went unmet.
The goal for undergraduate arts and sciences was $238 million but the College raised only $199.
Martin said, "We had ambitious goals for the undergraduate faculty. We raised a lot of money, but I think our goals were a little too ambitious."
Although the College raised only $1.3 million for athletics during the first two-and-a-half years of the campaign, the athletic endowment now stands at more than $7.5 million as a result of the efforts of a volunteer committee. But this figure is still well below the campaign's goal of $10 million.
While the goal for facilities was $113.9 million, the College raised only $91.6 million.
The money raised for facilities helped fund the Collis Center, Burke Laboratory, Byrne Hall at the Amos Tuck School for Business Administration, the Moore Theater for the Hopkins Center and the Roth Center for Jewish Life.
A $50 million gift from the Berry family will enable the College to build an addition to Baker Library.
The campaign was extremely successful in its efforts to raise funds for undergraduate financial aid, exceeding its original goal of $40 million by 135.3 percent.
Despite the fact that the $500 million mark was exceeded in June of this year, contributions continued until the conclusion of the campaign last week.
Martin said yesterday College President James Freedman "and all of us are just overwhelmed by that commitment."
In its final week, the Will to Excel Campaign received a boost from a $18.1 million bequest from the estate of the late Florence B. Moore, the largest in the college's history. Florence Moore was the widow of Lansing Porter Moore who attended Dartmouth for one semester during 1937.
Despite the success of the Will to Excel Campaign, the College plans to continue its fundraising efforts for scholarships, the athletic endowment and the Dartmouth Annual Fund.
But there are currently no plans for another capital campaign, Martin said.
The College's last campaign concluded 14 years ago and raised $44 million more than its $160 million goal.
Dartmouth has not been alone in its fundraising efforts. Columbia University, Princeton University and Yale University are all currently conducting capital campaigns, representatives from each school said.
Brown, which concluded a fundraising effort in May of 1995, raised $534 million, but had difficulty soliciting contributions for faculty chairs and professorships.
Martin said the number of capital campaigns is "increasing partly because the cost of higher education is increasing so rapidly and the only way to get support is by tuition and philanthropy."
