Every year gifts to the annual fund, including the Alumni Annual Fund, the Parents Fund, and the Carleton Friends Fund, provide a critical 6 percent of the college’s yearly operating budget, underwriting expenses all around the college.
Annual fund support is essential to ensure that our students push their intellectual boundaries, develop timeless skills, pursue their passions, cultivate well-rounded lives, and explore how their academic and personal interests may intersect with the real world.
Unrestricted dollars, such as those in the annual fund, give Carleton the flexibility to adapt to the most pressing needs and developing circumstances. This allows the college to remain nimble in managing its finances, providing an education to rival the best schools in the country despite having a smaller endowment.
Carleton’s proud tradition of giving, cultivated by Alumni Annual Fund volunteers, has helped propel alumni giving to high levels each year. In the past five years, the fund has grown from $7.5 million per year to $9 million. During the Every Carl for Carleton campaign, our goal is to exceed $10 million in annual giving from alumni, parents, and friends by 2021—the equivalent of earnings from an extra $200 million of endowment.
Annual Fund Goal: $56 million
Reinforcing Carleton’s long tradition of alumni and parent annual giving
“Carleton is the kind of school it is today because of the generosity of generations of people who came before me. I want to be part of that.”
— Tim Carroll ’09
Returning alumni participation in the Annual Fund to historic heights of 50%
“If you pick anything at Carleton that means a lot to you, there’s a high probability the Annual Fund helped make it happen. I give because Carleton holds a special place in my heart.”
— Marcus Lee ’99