The Colgate Fund Challenge

$4,579,101
Donated
176% of $2,600,000 goal
4,078
Donors
This campaign ended on December 31, 2023, but you can still make a gift to Colgate University by clicking here!
About

Be a part of the momentum.

The Colgate Commitment, Colgate’s initiative in access and affordability, has already allowed hundreds of Colgate graduates to avoid the burden of significant college debt. 

Earlier this fall, Colgate announced its plan to expand the Colgate Commitment even further — eliminating loans for more families and increasing aid dollars for expenses like books, health care, travel, and supplies.


But to make it happen, we need your help. 

Give between December 13–31 and double your impact: all gifts to the Colgate Fund will be matched, dollar for dollar, by a group of generous alumni, parents, and friends. Additionally, when 813 people from the Classes of 2014 - 2024 make a Colgate Fund gift by midnight, December 31, you will unlock an additional $1 million gift to financial aid.


Thank you for supporting Colgate and our students.

A special thank you to the challengers who have made this match possible:

  • Scott A. Barshay ’88 and Melissa Barshay ’88
  • Daniel C. Benton ’80, H’10, P’10
  • Jeanine Rossi Borthwick ‘90
  • Gretchen H. Burke ’81, P’11,’20 and Stephen B. Burke ’80, H’04, P’11,’20
  • Forrest G. Burke ’84 & Renee M. Burke P’22
  • President Brian W. Casey
  • Paul Carberry '94
  • Christine J. Chao ’86 and Jos Shaver ’86
  • J. Christopher Clifford ’67, H’11 & Keena Clifford P’93
  • Eric A. Cole ’93 & Ashley Cole P’24,’26
  • John K. Colgate Jr. ’57 & Diana Colgate P’88, GP’19
  • David A. Craver ’85
  • Norah and John S. Daly P’26
  • Julian W. Farrior ’93 & Jennifer Heltzel Farrior ’95
  • Edward J. Foley IV ’94 & Carolyn Foley P’26
  • Chris and John Grassi P’24
  • Daniel D. Harding ’74 and Pamela Harding ’75
  • Chris Hurley ’81, Becky Bair Hurley ’81, Matt Hurley ’12, & Dan Hurley ’12
  • Judith Little GP ’21
  • Jack McGrory ’71
  • Chi McClean ’63
  • Garret F. Meyer, Jr. ’55
  • Tyler G. Reeder ’96 and Sara E. Reeder ’96
  • Mark E. Sommer ’82, P’13 & Dr. Julie Jolin
  • Robert P. Straetz, Jr. ’69
  • Bill Winters ’83
  • Noah M. Wintroub ’98
  • ... and one anonymous donor


FAQs
Updates
Day 13


Your gifts are helping us to make history and build Colgate’s Third Century. Thanks to a generous gift by John K. Hoyns ’76, we passed the halfway point in the University’s historic Campaign for the Third-Century — the most ambitious fundraising effort ever undertaken by an American liberal arts college. Through this campaign we, as a community, will fully realize Colgate’s potential to become a national leader.

413 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 12


Beauty matters and it is made possible by your gifts to the Colgate Fund! Our famously beautiful campus continues to improve. In addition to the new buildings mentioned, on your next visit to Hamilton you’ll find several campus updates, including new outdoor spaces, trees, lighting, and walking paths that better connect the campus and village. New signage shows the campus speed limit has changed, also — to 13 mph, of course.

414 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 11


Because of your support, Colgate’s campus is constantly improving! Administrators are hard at work, making plans to further improve our campus and facilities. Major initiatives on the way include Broad Street renewal projects — which will create a new, more cohesive lower campus neighborhood — as well as the replacement of Reid Athletic Center, which will include a showpiece arena for basketball and volleyball.

415 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 10


Your gifts to the Colgate Fund make a difference even beyond our students’ four years on campus. Through Colgate’s robust career services — and now our distinctive 4-year career development plan — students are engaging in rich experiences of discovery, development, and entrepreneurship. All of this programming leads to outstanding post-graduate outcomes

416 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 9

The dollars you provide to the Colgate Fund are making our campus more green! The Colgate experience is growing more and more environmentally sustainable. As a University, we are 100% carbon neutral and our carbon footprint has reduced by more than 50% since 2009.

417 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 8


Because of your support, Colgate still boasts a 9:1 student-faculty ratio and world-class faculty. Through the creation of endowed chairs and support for the Colgate Fund, we are enhancing our ability to recruit, retain, and recognize leading scholar-teachers who are committed to sharing the knowledge they create — both with peers and our talented students.

418 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 7

Because of your gifts, Colgate has been able to work towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus. We have built a new diversity, equity, and inclusion team that is leading significant initiatives in areas like campus education, student life, and updates to Colgate’s Third-Century DEI Plan.

419 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 6

Your gifts make it possible for our Division I athletics teams to succeed. Last year, they made national tournament appearances, while achieving an overall 97% graduation success rate. Ten teams even earned perfect scores in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Ratings (APR). The Colgate Athletics Fund provides operating costs for our Division I teams, while the Colgate Fund supports our club teams and so many other initiatives. In short — go, ’gate!

420 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 5

Your Colgate Fund gifts make life-changing experiences possible! In addition to their rigorous academic coursework and activities on campus, thousands of students engage each year in transformative experiences like studying abroad, participating in graduate-level research, and completing internships around the world.

421 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 4


The Third-Century is being constructed before our very eyes, in the form of the new Benton Center for Creativity and Innovation and the Robert H.N. Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Center at Olin Hall. We couldn’t do it without donor support — and wouldn’t be able to even conceive of getting started without your generosity to the Colgate Fund.

422 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 3

Colgate’s record application numbers and class diversity and talent are made possible by increased support for financial aid through the Colgate Commitment, the University’s long-term initiative for access and affordability. This program seeks to eliminate federal loans for all Colgate students and ensure tuition is aligned with income — and it’s all made possible by your gifts to the Colgate Fund.


423 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 2

Colgate’s reputation is soaring and this is made possible in so many ways by Colgate Fund supporters. Perhaps the best evidence of this progress is our ability to attract the best and brightest students — more than 21,000 applicants this year. (To put that in perspective, we received about 9,000 annually five years ago!)

424 days ago by Sierra Miller
Day 1

Your generosity to the Colgate Fund has made a remarkable impact on campus and in the lives of our students this year. Throughout the Colgate Fund Challenge, we’ll be highlighting 13 of the ways your gifts have made an important difference in 2023.

Thanks to Colgate Fund support that benefits financial aid, this year Colgate welcomed the most diverse and academically talented first-year class in University history — 13% are the first in their families to go to college, and 25% identify as domestic students of color. Class members come from 50 states and 152 countries and their average GPA is 3.97 — the highest Colgate has ever seen.

425 days ago by Sierra Miller
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Book icon1%Students
Parent icon6%Parents
Suitcase icon1%Faculty/Staff
Friends icon1%Friends
Parent icon1%Grandparents
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Advocates

Colgate Fund Challengers

Offered a $1,300,000 match

Kelly Murphy Mulderry '93

Gave $13,000 during a Challenge!

Tim O'Neill '78

Gave $10,000 during a Challenge!

Kelsy Hill

Generated 9 clicks and 1 gift, totaling $2,500
Offered a $1,300 match

Faust and Tom

Offered a $1,000 match

Diane Fisher

Generated 20 clicks and 7 gifts, totaling $759

Jamie Lane

Offered a $533 match

Community Advocates

Generated 55 clicks and 3 gifts, totaling $376

Sarah Latson

Generated 9 clicks and 1 gift, totaling $99

Jacqueline T Brown

Generated 1 click and 1 gift, totaling $50
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