Major Barnard Benefactors

Major Benefactors to Barnard College

1889 40 NYers pledged $100 for next four years to launch Barnard Provide start-up fund of $40,000 over four years  
1891 Mrs. Van Wyck (Mary E.) Brinckerhoff gives $100,000 for building on Morningside site Conditioned on College raising $100,000 for land Money from her husband’s estate at lawyer’s urging
1893 J. P. Morgan gives outright gift of $5000 First of several “Founders” gifts of $5000 plus These gifts allow purchase of M/Side site for $100,000
1895 Seth Low gift to establish three Barnard professorships $37,500 Origins of a distinct BC faculty
1895 Mrs. Elizabeth Milbank Anderson gives $160,000 for a 2nd building on M/Side site First of her three major gifts Already on board at time of gift
1896 Mrs. Josiah M. Fiske gives $140,000 for a 3rd building To be on west side of Milbank; Brinckerhoff on east; top floor used as dorm (1898-1901) Another widow acting on advice of estates lawyer and friend of Barnard
  John D. Rockefeller challenge gift of $ xx,xxx if matched by others    
       
1900 Daniel B. Fayerweather estate distributed among several colleges Barnard gets $100,000  
1901 2nd Rockefeller challenge gift of $200,000 if matched Matched in 2 years by 77 donors  
1902 Mrs. Anderson acquires 116th-118th land for College à “Milbank Quadrangle” Assessed value at purchase $1,000,000  
1905 Mrs. Anderson gift of $750,000 to build dormitory à Brooks Hall    
1908 Miss Emily Gibbes of Newport leaves most of her estate to Barnard $500,000? Admirer of Annie Nathan Meyer
1911 John Stewart Kennedy estate gift of $50,000 to launch “Quarter Century Fund” Goal of $2,000,000 not reached until 1920  
1914 Rockefeller-funded General Education Board makes $200,000 endowment gift if matched. $50,000 gifts from E.H. Harriman and Joseph Pulitzer estate toward match  
1915 Jacob Schiff gives $500,000 to construct Students Hall on northeast corner of Milbank Quadrangle Intended as rebuff to CU for its failure to have Jew on its Biard Product of 2-decade cultivation by Treasurer George A. Plimpton
1915 Trustee Horace Carpentier gives $200,000 for scholarships Specifically targeting Chinese students but also for general use  
1918 Most of Carpentier estate split between Barnard and Columbia Upwards of $1,500,000 to Barnard into endowment Largest single benefaction into the 1950s
       
  Little in way of major gifts during interwar years; Hewitt Hall funded and opened in 1925 without a naming gift. Dean Gildersleeve a reluctant mendicant Some reluctance on part of wealthy Jewish alums to support the College
       
1926 Joline Founation underwrites Barnard Music Department Barnard’s first endowed department Douglas Moore inaugural holder
1934 General Education Board gives land at corner of Claremont and 120th to Barnard Barnard lacks funds to immediately build on it Later bought back for site of Interchurch Center
1934 Alumnae Fund established Tough going through Depression years Commuters reluctant givers
1936 Barnard’s principal fundraiser George A. Plimpton died.    
       
  Renewal of active fundraising during McIntosh administration (1947-62)    
       
1947 McIntosh and trustees, led by Mrs. Frank Altschul [Helen Goodheart 1907] and Mrs. Eugene Myer [ Agnes Ernst, ’07),   launch “Operation Bootstraps” to repair Barnard’s finances.    
1949 MCM personally secures $1,000,000 grant from Rockefeller Foundation; allowed College to balance 1949-50 budget. MCM — “If we hadn’t gotten that gift the College might have had to reduce its whole scale of operation.” Gift in Standard Oil stock paying 9% dividend
1949 Gift from Mrs. Corliss Lamont of $500,000 permits establishment of a separate Department of Religion Ursula Niebuhr named its director.  
  Eugene and Agnes Meyer [ Agnes Ernst, ‘07] give $50,00 for the Barnard Annex Intended as gathering place for commuting students.  
1950 Mrs. Frank Altschul endows College’s first professorship with a $300,000 gift; Chair named in honor of Millicent McIntosh ; English professor David Robertson first recipient.
1951 Establishment of the Barnard Fund – would raise $2,370,00 in next five years, easing Barnard’s financial situation Jean Palmer appointed Director of Development.  
1952 Relaunch of American Civilization Program with $75,000 grant from Carnegie Foundation    
1954 Barnard agrees to sell back property given to Barnard in the 1930s for a future building on corner of Claremont Avenue and 120th to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for $510,000.    
1955 Barnard among recipients of Ford Foundation Faculty Salary Grant ; permits increase in faculty salaries  
1955 Library Development Campaign launched; would eventuate in the raising of $2,000,000 for the future Wollman Library/Lehman Hall Opens in 1959. Principal donors include Iphigene [Ochs ’14) Sulzberger, Helen Altschul and Mrs . Arthur Lehman (Adele Lewisohn, ’03)  
1957 Gift from Mrs. Ogden R. Reid (Mary Louise Stewart, ’46) for construction of Reid Hall; opens in 1961. 3rd dormitory; allows 50% of Barnard students to live on campus  
1962 Groundbreaking for Student Center; upon opening in 1968 named for Millicent McIntosh Funding?  
       
  President Rosemary Park continues successful fundraising during her brief presidency    
       
1965? Funding secured for Plimpton Hall – 4th dormitory   Opened in 1968
       
1966 Funding secured for Altschul Science Center   Opened in 1969
       
       NB: From here on very sketchy    
       
       
1978 Janet Robb Professorship in Social Science endowed    
  Sulzberger Chair

 

   
  Milbank Chair in Medical Ethics    
       
  Principal gifts of Futter presidency    
       
1982 Centennial Scholars Program inaugurated with an anonymous gift of $1,000,000    
1986 Trustees commit to building Centennial Hall, without upfront naming gift Opens in 1989 Sulzberger family give $x,000,000 naming gift
  Rennert Chair    
  LeFrak Gift    
       
  Major gifts of the Shapiro presidency    
       
       
  Diana Center funded by    
       
       
2016 April — Barnard Bold Campaign for $400,000,000 launched by gifts totaling $70,000,000 from families of three alumnae Cheryl and Philip Cheryl Milstein
Diana T. Vagelos
Emily Tow Jackson
 
       
  Last Updated: March 4, 2016
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