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
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| 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 |
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| Last Updated: March 4, 2016 [email protected] |
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