Institutional Stars

By Maurice S. Luker III and Mary Wilford-Hunt

Air Products, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—the list goes on and on of corporate, foundation, and government donors who helped bring the Live Connected, Lead Change Campaign across the finish line. These grant funders who gave at least $100,000 to the campaign contributed a total of more than $37 million to support initiatives encompassing financial aid, faculty chairs, athletics, community partnerships, and more. The list is extensive. (The full complement of institutional contributors can be found in the online Summary of Giving, summaryofgiving.lafayette.edu.) Below are 10 corporations and foundations and their impact at Lafayette.

  • The world’s finest choreographers present their work on the stage of Williams Center for the Arts because of the Dexter F. and Dorothy H. Baker Foundation.
  • Art history students have an opportunity to discover the cultural wonders of Venice each summer through the contributions of the Frank  Family Charitable Foundation.
  • Students with limited financial resources receive a Lafayette education due to the scholarship aid provided by Clark Construction Group.
  • Keefe Hall is maintained as a superb facility where students design their own special-interest residential programs, made possible by the Keefe Family Foundation.
  • The athletics program seeks to create a championship culture through lead gifts from the F. M. Kirby Foundation, Inc.
  • Faculty members from all four academic divisions are incorporating entrepreneurial-mindset learning into their courses in collaboration with The Kern Family Foundation.
  • Women engineers are pursuing research with faculty mentors and activities for professional development as Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholars funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.
  • Faculty members and their students use the best equipment for learning and research through the annual gifts of the McCutchen Foundation.
  • Engineering students collaborate in research projects that support community connections with dollars provided by the William T. Morris Foundation.
  • Downtown Easton is a cleaner and safer place for Lafayette students to visit due to early support of the Easton Ambassadors by Turner Construction Company.

Facilitated through the Live Connected, Lead Change Campaign, the College’s institutional donors have a daily impact on nearly every aspect of what makes a Lafayette education distinctive.

Maurice S. Luker III has led Lafayette’s corporate, foundation, and government relations team since 2006, joined by Mary Wilford-Hunt in 2017.