Norwich Forever

The ‘Norwich Forever!' campaign was wrapped up on Dec. 31 raising $82 million, according to President Richard Schneider.

‘Norwich Forever!' was a capital campaign that started more than five years ago to provide funding for many projects. The campaign is part of the 2019 Plan.

The campaign started out as a $55 million project. However, over the course of just over five years, the campaign raised $82 million, according to Schneider. Norwich alumni, friends and corporations supported this campaign.

"The first two years is called the silent phase. As soon as I had $25 million in pledges, then we felt comfortable and confident, and then we announced what the goal was, 55 million," Schneider said.

According to Schneider, doing capital campaigns such as this one isn't so easy.
"It's not an amateur sport," Schneider said.

The way money starts to come into campaigns is through pledges. When someone gives a pledge, it means they say they can give a certain amount of money, but they don't give it all at once. For example, someone who pledges $5,000 may give a $1,000 each year for five years.

The money for Norwich Forever was raised for projects that have recently been finished and some that have just started construction. The campaign focused on building new buildings for campus, improving academics and creating more scholarships, according to Schneider.

Benefitting from the campaign are the Sullivan Museum, the Wise Campus Center and Doyle Hall. The Sullivan Museum was the first project to be completed, followed by the Wise Campus Center. Doyle Hall is currently under construction and supposed to be finished at the end of September 2010.

Construction projects weren't the only thing that the Norwich Forever campaign will fund. Some of the money goes towards scholarship funds, academic improvement and general operating costs.

"This is the first time in our history we've used a capital campaign to raise money for academics. Normally, in the past we've only built buildings," Schneider said. "I wanted to strengthen the academics programs and our academic reputation."

The money is also going towards internationalizing the campus, which includes sending students abroad.

The money also pays faculty and students to stay on campus over the summer and do research and to help publish the research, according to Schneider.

The Norwich Forever campaign also got money from what is known as the ‘1819 Circle,' which means that the money was left to Norwich in a person's estate. When the person dies, the gift will come to Norwich. These are called deferred gifts, according to Schneider.

Other capital campaigns that are part of the 2019 Plan are ‘Bearing the Torch' and the ‘Bicentennial' campaign.

The ‘Bearing the Torch' campaign is already underway. It is a three-year campaign that began on Jan. 1. The ‘Bicentennial' campaign will publically start in 2014 and go for five years. These campaigns will wrap up the capital campaigns for the 2019 Plan.

  According to a Jan. 19 memo that was sent out to the Norwich Community from Schneider, the construction of South Hall, the completion of the ‘Norwich Forever!' campaign and the growth in the number of undergraduate students are all successful completions as part of the 2019 Plan.