Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s
Saint Mary's Comprehensive Campaign exceeded its fundraising goal, as nearly 30,000 donors—a participation record—raised $136 million.
A Message From the President
Two years ago, we launched the public phase of Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s with an audacious goal: to raise $125 million to invest in academic excellence, support student scholarships, strengthen our Lasallian Catholic mission, and fund operations.
This goal far exceeded that of any previous fundraising campaign at the College. We knew the outcome would define the College’s future possibilities. Success wasn’t guaranteed, but we had faith in you: faith that our alumni and friends, students and parents, and faculty and staff would rise to meet the challenge.
By the Campaign’s end on Dec. 31, 2019, nearly 30,000 donors—a participation record—had contributed almost $11 million more than our goal. This historic accomplishment positions Saint Mary’s College to become the leading Catholic comprehensive university in the Western United States. It reaffirms the value of our core traditions—Catholic, Lasallian, and liberal arts—while it supports academic transformations that respond to the evolving needs of our students. For years to come, students will enter this College to find their voices and their vocations, and leave prepared for a lifetime of service to family, community, nation, and world.
On the following pages, we celebrate the promise of our students, the success of key initiatives, and the commitment of our donors. I am proud of the tremendous outpouring of support for Saint Mary’s College, and I am deeply thankful to each of you for the Campaign’s success.
Sincerely,
President James A. Donahue
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Nearly 30,000 donors contributed
$136 million
Engaging New Donors: The Library & Innovation Center
During the Campaign, 21,364 donors, or 71 percent, gave to support Saint Mary’s for the first time, helping propel the Campaign past the finish line. Among them were John A. and Susan Sobrato, influential philanthropists who have pledged to donate 100 percent of their wealth to charity.
A pioneering real estate developer, John helped shape Silicon Valley by building office campuses for prominent technology firms. Concerned about rising inequality in the region, he and Susan made it a priority to support education and career training. Some of their most generous gifts have benefited Catholic institutions.
Saint Mary’s captured their interest with its plans for the new Library & Innovation Center, the biggest capital project ever on campus. The Sobratos pledged $5 million for the center, and with their gift, the College aims to begin construction in early 2023.
Located at the western corner of Chapel Loop, the three-story, 58,000-square-foot building will serve as a vibrant hub for teaching, research, and scholarly achievement. Here, the campus community will access print and digital library resources; and an Innovation Lab with a wide array of technologies, classrooms, study nooks, exhibition galleries, and more.
Margaret Kasimatis, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, leads planning efforts for the center. “Our talented, diverse students and our world-class faculty deserve a facility that inspires innovation, empowers scholarship and discovery, and facilitates connection,” she said. “Our Library & Innovation Center will bring this vision to light.”
Investing in Academic Excellence
$27.5 million raised to attract and retain leading-edge faculty; support student-faculty collaboration; and provide the facilities, tools, and resources to prepare students for meaningful lives.
Inspiration and Impact
What motivated donors to give so generously to Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s? Nancy Gracey Richardson, a friend of the College who has made it one of her top philanthropic causes, said: “I am impressed by the personalized education students receive in all areas of critical thinking.”
A retired patent agent in chemistry and biotechnology, Richardson’s connection with Saint Mary’s began with watching Gaels athletic games. It deepened when she was invited to observe science students present findings from their summer research. “It was riveting—especially seeing the students interact with faculty. They had so much camaraderie,” she recalled. The event inspired Richardson to volunteer with the School of Science (SOS) advisory board, which she has led as chair for five years.
The SOS exemplifies the deep impact of the Campaign on academic departments across campus. Donors like Richardson responded enthusiastically to the school’s call to fund specific needs. As a result of their support, more students can receive larger awards for faculty-advised summer research. Students and professors have access to newly acquired sophisticated equipment for lab work and research, including a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy system for studying the structure of molecules. Academic excellence is recognized and rewarded with scholarships such as the prestigious Clare Boothe Luce Scholars Program, which helps build supportive cohorts of women science majors in fields where they are underrepresented.
At the Kalmanovitz School of Education, an anonymous donor has endowed a Professorship in Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Intervention. Dean Carol Ann Gittens explained, “This professorship underscores the school’s equity and social justice mission by ensuring continued prominence as a national leader in this highly specialized field, which focuses on preparing teachers to help struggling beginning readers and writers.” The school is one of only 17 Reading Recovery University Training Centers in North America.
While serving on the advisory board of the School of Economics and Business Administration, Sirisha Dasu became so inspired by the school’s Women’s Leadership Program that she enlisted her employer, VMware, to be a corporate sponsor. Dasu also arranged for seven women from VMware to come to campus for the program. “They were so energized and positively motivated. It helped them develop self-confidence, solve day-to-day business challenges, and build networks geared toward growth,” Dasu said.
“I hope the Beck Family Field Study Fund kick-starts the career of the next great anthropologist,” said Malerie Beck ’18, who designed her family’s Campaign gift to the School of Liberal Arts. The fund enables Anthropology majors to attend summer field schools, then make a presentation on campus as part of the Liberal Arts Bridge professional development program. “I had a wonderful experience at Saint Mary’s thanks to my Anthropology professors. I wanted to give something back.”
Supporting Student Scholarships
$32 million raised to increase need- and merit-based scholarships, improve access to education, and attract a diverse student body.
Beyond the Dream
“The level of attention and support that faculty and staff provide our students is profound. Small classes and personalized education have the greatest impact on student learning, but they’re also expensive,” observed William Mullen, vice provost of Enrollment and Communications. More than 90 percent of undergraduates depend on financial aid to afford a Saint Mary’s education.
The scholarship funds raised during the Campaign make an impact in multiple ways. “They enable us to attract a diverse student body, including high-need students who could not attend without aid and high-performing students who receive merit scholarship offers from multiple colleges,” Mullen said. “Scholarships help to reduce loans in students’ financial aid packages, keeping debt at a reasonable level and making repayment manageable after graduation.”
Marielle Gardner ’19 was a high-performing student who qualified for financial aid. She said: “Scholarships allowed me to focus on my studies and do the things that were important to me.” This included participating on the debate team while completing the demanding Integral Program. Now, she aims to become a math professor and will enter a PhD program in the fall. “When I walked into Saint Mary’s, I didn’t even know what research was,” she recalled. “But I found professors who believed in me and pushed me. They showed me I could go beyond what I had dreamed of.”
Mullen added, “Saint Mary’s has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Payscale, and others for the transformative education and strong upward mobility we provide our students. Because of scholarship gifts, we can continue to change lives for years to come.”
As a senior at Cristo Rey San Jose High School, Isabel Martinez ’22 was set to enroll at UC Merced, when a counselor told her about a new scholarship just for Cristo Rey alumni attending Saint Mary’s established by former College trustees. She toured campus and was impressed by the support available for first-generation students like her. “This scholarship tells me people believe in me,” said Martinez, now a Psychology major. “It’s like these donors are cheering me on.”
Dr. Louis Geissberger ’53 aimed to donate $1 million to Saint Mary’s with gifts like the Geissberger Family Basketball Endowed Scholarship Fund. But when he died in 2018, he hadn’t quite reached his goal. His four sons, all alumni, added to the scholarship to complete his vision. “My dad attributed his success to Saint Mary’s,” said John Geissberger ’92. “I hope the scholarship will help students achieve their dreams like my dad was able to do.”
Students in the Integral Program dedicate all four years of college to rigorous study of a classic liberal arts curriculum, reading works by Western history’s greatest thinkers and engaging in intense seminar discussions. The program’s demands make it difficult for students to support themselves by working, so financial aid is critical. A scholarship grant from the Charles and Marie Robertson Foundation helps keep Integral students with unmet financial needs in the program.
Strengthening Mission, Funding Operations
$33.6 million raised to strengthen the College’s Lasallian, Catholic mission and to provide unrestricted support that benefits operations across campus.
Resources for Social Justice
For more than 150 years, Saint Mary’s College has remained faithful to the principles of its longtime stewards, the Lasallian Christian Brothers. In keeping with its commitments to social justice and inclusive community, the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action (CILSA) connects students with organizations where they work for positive social change and gain leadership skills. CILSA also assists faculty with developing courses that incorporate community-based service or research.
Donors to Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s have provided CILSA with the resources to expand these community engagement opportunities. In the 2018–19 academic year, 935 students put in a total of 58,655 hours of community service through CILSA internships, fellowships, and coursework. Students learned from real-world experiences like helping preschool children develop literacy skills, running job-training programs for high school students, and advocating for changes in public policy.
Ryan Villegas ’18, who worked with formerly homeless youth in Alameda and in a preschool in Oakland, said CILSA taught him “how to find my vocation…. I found that the dynamic of mentorship was something that I loved, and it was something that I was totally new to.” Today, he teaches middle school students in Arizona.
CILSA experiences have also led alumni to found nonprofit organizations, become public interest attorneys, and volunteer with AmeriCorps. The Campaign’s success ensures that future students will graduate with the passion and the skills to transform society.
A Foundation for the Future
In addition to an unwavering mission, the Christian Brothers brought to Saint Mary’s a focus on effective management of institutional operations. This legacy is reflected in Campaign gifts that support the full range of today’s operations.
“Our donors are our partners in ensuring Saint Mary’s has both a solid financial foundation and the flexibility to respond to student needs with new services and educational approaches,” said Kevin Nagle, chairperson of the College’s Board of Trustees.
Unrestricted gifts are especially important in this regard. They help pay the salaries of the College’s 900 faculty and staff—attracting talented personnel who are dedicated to student success—and fund maintenance of the 420-acre campus, the activities of 16 athletic teams, and countless other basic needs.
Unrestricted gifts also enable the College to seize opportunities or resolve problems as they arise. They helped the Saint Mary’s Chamber Singers and Glee Club travel to the World Choir Games in South Africa in 2018, where they won silver medals. And they covered the expenses of students serving as congressional interns in Washington, D.C.
“Unrestricted gifts, whether large or small, are indispensable to everything we do,” Nagle said. “They’re a big part of the reason our star is rising.” Today, Saint Mary’s ranks in the Top Five Western Regional Universities, according to U.S. News & World Report, and among the Top 10 Percent Nationwide for the Earning Potential of Its Graduates.
By the Numbers
A Message From the Campaign Chair
Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s has brought historic changes to campus. We can point to physical transformations, like the new Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center and renovations in UCU Pavilion. In total, donors provided $53.5 million for capital projects. We can also cite improvements in our financial outlook, such as the $29.9 million that donors added to the College’s endowment.
There’s another Campaign outcome that makes me especially proud: We have significantly elevated the culture of philanthropy at Saint Mary’s, embracing it throughout our community. I am confident that this culture will remain a source of strength as the College moves forward toward new goals, such as building the Library & Innovation Center.
When I was a student at Saint Mary’s, the Christian Brothers who were my professors always took personal interest in ensuring my success. More than 50 years later, students say the same thing about today’s faculty. This personalized attention, modeled by the Brothers, forges lasting connections between alumni and the College. It’s one of the College’s greatest assets, the source of our culture of philanthropy and our dedication to the Lasallian mission.
I am forever grateful for the Catholic liberal arts education that Saint Mary’s provides, and I am especially thankful to all who have given back to this incredible institution.
Sincerely,
Garth Flint ’63
DONATION ALLOCATION BY THE NUMBERS
1. Unrestricted—$21,847,193
2. Restricted—$26,498,888
3. Capital—$53,556,395
4. Endowment—$29,975,784
5. GIK and Other—$4,014,179
BY THE NUMBERS:
29,993 donors from 50 states, 38 countries, and 9 decades of alumni
$93.3 million raised for college operations, scholarships, academic excellence and Lasallian mission
$53.5 million raised for capital projects
$32 million raised for scholarships
$29.4 million raised to support Gael student-athletes
$25.9 million raised through legacy gifts and intentions