Oakland, CA - Mills College announced today the successful completion of its Sesquicentennial Campaign, raising $130 million for innovative academic programs, student scholarships, endowed professorships, new and renovated facilities, and technology. The largest fundraising initiative in Mills’ 152-year history, the comprehensive campaign “for the future of excellence in education and women in leadership” earned $30 million more than the initial $100 million goal.

More than 11,000 donors worldwide contributed to the Campaign, including alumnae who gave nearly 60 percent of the total raised and parents of current and former students who provided 11.5 percent. Lorry I. Lokey, founder of the San Francisco-based Business Wire, gave the largest individual gift of $10 million to establish a new graduate school of business.

“The extraordinary success of our Sesquicentennial Campaign affirms Mills’ compelling mission: to advance women to the highest levels of academic and professional achievement,” said Janet L. Holmgren, Mills President. “We are grateful to the thousands of donors enabling Mills to build on its legacy of providing dynamic undergraduate liberal arts programs for women, and exceptional graduate studies for women and men.”

Publicly announced in 2000 and completed on December 31, 2004, the Campaign represents a significant investment in a wide range of projects and programs including:

Student Financial Aid

• More than $12 million for financial aid endowment

Academic Programs

• More than $14 million for endowed professorships and academic programs including environmental science, public policy, the Mills MBA, and the Institute for Civic Leadership
• Undergraduate research across the curriculum

Facilities

• The new $8 million Education Center for programs from pre-school to the EdD in Urban Educational Leadership 
• The new Trefethen Aquatic Center 
• The Suzanne Adams Student Union Plaza 
• Renovations for the Vera M. Long Social Science Center, the Music Building, and the Life Sciences Building

Technology

• Creating a fully wireless campus 
• The new Electronic Collaborative Learning Center

Numerous corporations and foundations contributed to the Campaign including: Genentech, Inc., the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Oracle Corporation, GE Fund, Bank of America Foundation, Union Bank of California Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Bernard Osher Foundation, Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, the Vera M. Long Foundation, and the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Among the major individual donors were: Jane Newhall, Caren Prothro and family, Jeannik Littlefield, Jacklyn and Philip Burchill, and Marilyn and Richard Holland.

Mills College provides outstanding undergraduate programs for women and graduate studies for women and men within a diverse, urban setting. The oldest women’s college west of the Rockies, Mills marked its Sesquicentennial in 2002.

PRESS CONTACT:
Deborah Dallinger
Communications Consultant
(925) 788-9131