Every Carl for Access Challenge
Alumni and friends pooled resources to challenge Carls to raise funds for financial aid.
As the Every Carl for Carleton campaign neared its end date of June 30, 2021, more than 60 alumni, parents, and friends of the college had taken advantage of a final challenge aimed at helping the college achieve its goal of raising $150 million for financial aid and helping talented, deserving students gain access to a Carleton education.
The Every Carl for Access Challenge offered $7 million in matching funds and included two avenues for participation: outright gifts and planned gifts. All outright gifts and pledges of $50,000 to $2.5 million that established or added to an existing endowed scholarship fund were matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling the impact a donor has on students with financial need. Additionally, life income gifts of at least $50,000 and new, documented estate gifts of at least $50,000 from donors age 70 or older generated a $50,000 addition to the newly created Every Carl for Carleton Endowed Scholarship.
Highlighting how strongly financial aid resonates with Carleton alumni, the challenge was funded by multiple donors: Bill Buffett ’55 and Susan Kennedy, Leslie Kautz ’80, P ’15 and Jack Weiss P ’15, Barbara Weitz ’70, P ’96, P ’99, P ’02 and Wally Weitz ’70, P ’96, P ’99, P ’02, and an anonymous donor. It ran for just six months before all funds had been claimed.
The challenge also recognized the transformational impact that a Carleton education provides for first-generation students by earmarking $2 million for endowed funds that include a preference for assisting these young people. By doing so, the Every Carl for Access Challenge has increased accessibility for low- and middle-income students in perpetuity.
“We want all our students to have the resources they need to be able to truly benefit from all aspects of a Carleton education,” said President Steve Poskanzer.