Strategic Initiatives

Enhancing Excellence:
Leadership Gifts That Build Community

Strategic Initiative gifts are targeted contributions at a leadership level that support the College's commitment to excellence. These gifts provide direct and immediate funding for the major building blocks of the Sarah Lawrence experience: faculty resources, student community and scholarships, and the maintenance and renovation of our beautiful campus.

Faculty

No single element is more central to the excellence of a college than its faculty. Sarah Lawrence is no different. And yet we are different. Our faculty are not only the best and the brightest, they are also uniquely committed to undergraduate students and to the College’s philosophy of education in the singular.

Following our successful $75 million capital campaign, we must continue to fund several key strategic initiatives in order to attract and retain the dedicated teacher-scholars who truly define the Sarah Lawrence experience; we must compensate them fairly and create an environment that fosters their scholarship and professional advancement. The more our faculty create and learn and do, in and out of the classroom, the more dynamic their dialogue with students.

We must continue to fund these strategic initiatives that enable us to offer faculty: competitive salaries; an enriching intellectual environment; and the best academic infrastructure.

We must fund these areas each year, and we rely on generous donor support to ensure that world-class faculty will always want to make Sarah Lawrence their home.

Scholarships and Community Life

Sarah Lawrence is renowned for educating students who have a strong sense of individuality. Yet our community as a whole is also a vital part of the Sarah Lawrence experience. A significant percentage of the College’s daily operating expenses goes toward creating and sustaining a meaningful student community—one that is diverse, robust and supportive of the whole student, in and out of the classroom.

Support for scholarships, student development, student support and campus programming are key components to Sarah Lawrence’s remaining competitive in educating the best and brightest students. These initiatives, which impact the day-to-day lives of our students and make up the lifeblood of the Sarah Lawrence experience, must be funded annually, and we rely on generous donor support to sustain excellence.

One of the College’s largest expenses is student aid. Donor support is especially important because only 18 percent of our annual financial aid costs are funded by restricted endowments and annual gifts. For most peer institutions, this figure is between 42 percent and 100 percent. In addition, compared to many of the colleges and universities with whom we compete for students Sarah Lawrence has a lower percentage of students receiving total financial aid.

Spaces

Sarah Lawrence is committed to building community life on campus. Literally. The debut of the Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Visual Arts Center, Jr. has freed nearly 21,000 square feet of space across campus, notably in Bates, and a massive renovation project is getting underway. Our top priority: creating spaces that foster community and enhance student life on campus. Following our successful $75 million capital campaign, we must continue to fund strategic initiatives to build a campus that meets the needs of today’s Sarah Lawrence, a thriving community made up of diverse individuals—faculty, students, and staff—who have high needs for space and resources.