Colby College and Colorado College announced they had received historic private gifts of $50 million and $18 million, respectively, this past week. In each case, all or most of the funds will go toward increasing student financial aid.

Colby College

On February 7, Colby College a private, liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, announced it had received a gift of $50 million from the Lunder Foundation. One of the largest gifts in the college’s history, the donation will be used to increase financial aid for Colby students.

“A major priority for the College has been to open the doors of Colby to talented students from around the world and to ensure it is affordable for all of them,” said President David A. Greene, in a news release. “Our leading financial aid program makes this possible, and it is only possible because of the commitment of the Colby community to access and equity. That has never been more true than today with this remarkable gift from the Lunder Foundation and its founders, Peter and Paula Lunder,” Greene continued.

Colby offers very generous financial aid to its students. For students from families with total annual income of $75,000 or less (and other assets typical of that income), it meets 100% of the student’s demonstrated financial need without using loans. Colby also guarantees students from families with income of $150,000 or less and typical assets will pay no more than $15,000 annually.

As a result, Colby has been able to increase its enrollment of first-generation college students by 38% between 2014 to 2023, and according to a recent report from the American Talent Initiative, of which Colby is a member, it saw a 103% enrollment increase between 2015 and 2022 in the number of students receiving Pell Grants.

“Supporting financial aid for higher education has always been one of the major areas of interest of the Lunder Foundation,” said Peter and Paula Lunder. Peter, a 1956 graduate of Colby with a degree in business, is the former president of the Dexter Shoe Company. He and his wife Paula are both members of Colby’s Board of Visitors and its Museum of Art Board of Governors. In addition to Colby College, the Lunders have a long history of philanthropic support for art museums, health care and higher education.

“We feel that it is vitally important to provide the means for qualified students to have access to the life-changing educational opportunity offered by outstanding institutions of higher learning. It is for that reason that our foundation supports endowed scholarship funds at 14 such institutions, including Colby,” said the couple in the news release.

Colorado College

Yesterday, Colorado College, a private liberal arts institution in Colorado Springs, announced it had been given more than $18 million from the estate of the late William “Bill” Clement, a 1942 alumnus of the college. The bequest is the largest cash gift from an individual in the college’s history. 

The donation was made without restrictions. The Colorado College Board of Trustees has designated that $16 million will go the institution’s endowment to support student financial aid. The rest of the Clement gift will establish the Clement Challenge, through which for the remainder of 2024, donors can have gifts up to $25,000 doubled by a match from the Clement donation, up to a total of $2 million.

“We are immensely grateful to Mr. Clement for this gift and the impact it will have in propelling student opportunities,” said Colorado College President L. Song Richardson in a news release.

Richardson, who recently announced she would be resigning as president at the end of the academic year, added, “such a commitment allows us to continue welcoming talented and ambitious students to CC and providing them with the support they need to thrive once here. We hear from CC alumni and their employers alike about the ‘superpowers’ our graduates have — the ability to focus deeply, learn quickly, and think creatively — and we believe the world needs more leaders with these qualities.”

With the help of a scholarship funded by Illinois area alumni, Clement attended Colorado College where he served as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper and participated on the debate team, swim team and a thespian group.

Following his graduation in 1942, Clement worked as a physicist on the Manhattan Project at the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley. After the war, he earned an MA in physics and a PhD in philosophy from UC, Berkeley. He subsequently worked in the electronics industry before devoting himself to investments and what he called a “non-professional quest for knowledge.”  He was a long-timer supporter of Colorado College.