On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Macalester community was invited to an event on Shaw Field to celebrate the launch of “Brighter: The Macalester College Campaign.” The free event featured food trucks, an ice skating rink and a Highland Coo mittens giveaway. While President Suzanne Rivera spoke briefly about the campaign, and the Brighter campaign logo illuminated the sides of the Leonard Center and the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, very few specifics were shared.
The Brighter campaign is Macalester’s newest fundraising and alumni engagement initiative. In October 2023, the Board of Trustees (BoT) approved a new fundraising campaign of at least $200 million, which was later revised to $250 million after exceeding initial funding expectations.
According to Vice President for Advancement Joanna Curtis ’97, the campaign has two primary goals: to raise $250 million in funding towards “three priority areas” and to engage 50 percent of Macalester alumni, “whether that is as donors, or volunteers or [participants] in the life of the college.” Both goals have a target deadline of 2029.
A campaign memo presented to the BoT states that the aforementioned “priority areas” for funding are “Opportunity, Distinction and Environment.” Of the $250 million in funds that Brighter aims to raise, $45 million are to be allocated for initiatives in the “Opportunity” category. This includes $40 million of combined funding for “new endowed scholarships funds” and the Posse Foundation program, as well as $5 million for the Flemming Scholars program.
$30.5 million will be set aside for “Distinction”-related programs, which, according to the memo, are targeted at “building faculty excellence” and “guarantee[ing] every student graduates with at least one ‘high-impact practice’ experience.” Examples of “high-impact practices” include study-away programs, internships, mentored research programs and involvement in student conferences.
Curtis emphasized one of the Brighter campaign’s “Distinction” goals: expanding and creating new “short-term” study away programs.
“Something that we’ve heard from students and from the study away program is that there are a lot of students who, for a variety of reasons, can’t do a semester-long study away, but they would be interested in a two-week-long study away,” Curtis said. “And we have faculty members that would like to do more study away embedded in a course that they’re doing.”
The “Environment” category contains $50 million for campus-improvement initiatives. This includes partial funding for the construction of a new Welcome Center and Residence Hall building, as outlined in the Comprehensive Campus Plan (a subsidiary of the Strategic Plan). The new building is to be outfitted with several “sustainability elements,” including “[a] geothermal system, rooftop solar array [and] green roof on the terrace,” according to the aforementioned Brighter memo.
While Brighter was not outlined in the Comprehensive Campus Plan, the campaign was created as a result of the plan to work in tandem with and to partially financially support its objectives.
“Once the strategic plan was implemented, we knew we had to think about what are those aspects of the strategic plan that are going to need financial and other resources outside of what the college already has access to,” Curtis said.
So far, the campaign has raised $109 million towards its $250 million target. Curtis is optimistic that Brighter will achieve its funding goals by 2029. She also implied that the scope of Brighter could grow, depending on its success.
One major aspect of Brighter’s internal strategy is reevaluating how Macalester fundraises and how to make changes to its current approach. According to Curtis, Macalester can use tuition money to cover all of its operating expenses until mid-February each spring semester. Once tuition money runs out, Macalester shifts its operations to run solely on funds earned from either its endowment or other philanthropic giving.
“Right now, in the beginning stages of the campaign, a lot of what we’re doing is figuring out what the end goal should be,” Emma Rohrs ’26, a Brighter Campaign Student Representative, said. “[We’re] looking at our ‘peer 40 colleges’ and figuring out what are their fundraising goals and metrics, then looking at how we should try to compare.”
The beginning stages of Brighter were also timed with Macalester’s Sesquicentennial, which involved additional fundraising efforts toward the Macalester Fund. These events included special “Give to Macalester days” last March.
But, as previously mentioned, fundraising is not the sole focus of the Brighter campaign. The Alumni Engagement aspect of Brighter aims to expand the breadth of alumni’s continued relationship with Macalester after graduation. The campaign is focused on three major areas of engagement: philanthropy, volunteering and on-campus participation.
“In the past, being volunteers meant serving on a committee like reunion committees, serving on the Board of Trustees,” Curtis said. “We are trying to introduce a lot of other ways that alumni can engage as volunteers that doesn’t that don’t take as much time.”
In an email to The Mac Weekly, Laurie Adamson*, executive director for student leadership & engagement, who serves on the Brighter Campaign committee, highlighted that the campaign is also about improving the engagement of the current Macalester community, as well as that of alumni.
“The [Launch Party] was meant to inspire and engage the campus community with Brighter, so we brainstormed ways to involve students early on in the campaign, leading to a winter celebration that highlighted the new campaign and brings the theme “Brighter” to life with warm lights, luminaries and bonfire,” Adamson wrote.
The Brighter Campaign committee consists of multiple sects of the Macalester community, including staff, faculty, students and alumni. The committee meets regularly to discuss how to increase awareness about Brighter. Committee members also design strategies to engage potential donors.
“There are a lot of colleges and universities where alumni are motivated to put their names on something … or want things to be the same way when [they] were there,” Curtis said. “I don’t feel that our alumni behave in that way. They’re excited about what’s happening at Mac today. They’re excited about what our students are doing … and that’s what they want to be able to support.”
Brighter Student Representative Hamza Mahamud ’26 got involved with the Brighter Campaign committee at the end of last school year after President Rivera asked him to serve on the committee. As a Student Representative, Mahamud’s main role is to provide input on the branding and messaging of Brighter from the lens of a current student.
“What I hope Brighter will do for Macalester is to put it in the position that it needs to be for the next 20 to 50 years,” Mahamud said. “There’s a lot of things that the campaign is looking to capitalize on, whether that is the new dorms … [or] keeping faculty.”
Mahamud also emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong connection within the greater Mac-Groveland community. He noted that, in the Brighter meetings he had attended, campaign stakeholders shared his concern for Macalester’s community footprint.
Because Brighter is a long-term campaign, its greatest effects will likely not be apparent to Macalester students for some time. For example, construction on the new Welcome Center complex will not begin until 2026 at the earliest. Still, Curtis stressed that alumni donations “are being put to work as soon as possible.”
“For example … we were able to announce that a trustee and former parent is endowing a new fund for the music program,” Curtis said. “That endowment will perpetually support the music program. It will start generating an annual award in about two years, that the music program will be able to use in perpetuity to support programs.”
The Brighter campaign is still in its early stages. Students should expect to hear more communication from the Brighter team as the campaign progresses.
*Laurie Adamson is The Mac Weekly’s faculty advisor
