As the Dow and Nasdaq plummet to multi-year lows, the College ramps up for a major capital campaign, hoping that alumni remain generous despite their shrinking portfolios.
Vice President for Development Carrie Pelzel said that Dartmouth will soon initiate a fundraising campaign after two years of discussion and preparation. The College has not decided whether to postpone the campaign's launch due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but financial effects will be felt regardless of any delay.
"We understand that the downturn in the economy might well have an effect on the donation rate," Pelzel said.
John King, director of investments, agreed. He said that because of the decline in stock prices, "people probably are going to feel a little less generous."
Vice President and Treasurer Win Johnson also acknowledged that stock market losses make lower contributions a possibility, but he said that it is too early to tell the extent of the damage. He remains optimistic -- "Dartmouth has had an extraordinarily good record of donors fulfilling their pledges in good times and bad times, [and] I hope that record would remain intact," he said.
Some of the College's most generous donors are largely unfazed by troubles on Wall Street. "The companies are all uniformly down [but] by various amounts," said Bruce Rauner '78. Even though stocks have dropped, Rauner said that he doesn't plan to donate any less to the College.
Neither does Charles Collis '37, who said, "I've been fairly fortunate, but I've been hit like everyone else."
King was confident that stocks would recover their losses and was unworried by short-term deviations in the market. "We have a long-term approach to investments that has worked very well over time," he said, "and we are continuing to take a long-term view."
