A Commitment to the Future
Thank you, classmates, for responding so generously to our gift campaign and for being part of the largest-ever 50th Reunion gift to the College! Together, we raised $65,232,084, with an impressive 57.4% participation.

At our 50th, our classmates’ winding roads and philanthropic interests merged together around two key initiatives:
- Through gifts totaling $1.3 million, we established a Class of 1974 Scholarship to increase the diversity of our student body by expanding financial aid for Carleton’s highest-need students. Gifts from classmates were matched by funds from the Carleton Access Initiative.
- We also raised more than $8.5 million to create a new home for Carleton’s Student Health and Counseling Center, which will enhance the physical and mental health of students for many generations to come. “The Class of 1974 Center” will be the first building at Carleton to carry a class name in recognition of our gift. The site for the ’74 Center is now being prepared and the building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.
Our 50th Reunion gift included $542,943 for the Alumni Annual Fund, continuing our long-standing commitment to strengthening the foundation of the Carleton experience through unrestricted support.
We also gave back in ways that meant the most to us, some of us choosing to support off-campus study, interdisciplinarity, neurodiversity, and accessibility, and others funding scientific research and field experiences, academic departments, and athletics. We more than doubled the number of classmates who are members of the Joseph Lee Heywood Society, with 63 of us now designating estate gifts that will support Carleton students long into the future.
In the days and weeks following Reunion, alumni from other classes have reached out to us in excitement and curiosity. Members of the Class of 1984 have told us that becoming the “old, slow, and crusty ones” (as Barbara Merrill so aptly put it during her Reunion remarks) has been very much on their minds, and that they were surprisingly moved and inspired by 1974’s gift campaign-and are already looking ahead to stretching at their 50th. We’ve also heard that our gift campaign prompted several members of the Class of 1954 to reassess and augment commitments they made during their 50th Reunion. Alumni across eras have reflected on the difference expanded mental and physical health services would have made on their own student experiences.
We share these stories to emphasize that we have launched something powerful and transformative together. We are deeply grateful to each and every classmate who has joined in our class gift campaign. Our commitments will make a world of difference to current and future Carls. It has been truly gratifying to come together and reconnect with each other and Carleton in celebration of our milestone reunion.
– Your 50th Reunion Gift Committee