![\"\"](\"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/files\/2020\/09\/36-37_Development_F20_Rd2-1-300x233.jpg\")
<\/a>As the COVID-19 pandemic began to upend life across the globe last spring, higher-education institutions faced existential questions about their futures. Trinity College, like its peers, reevaluated carefully laid plans for institutional strategy, including fundraising priorities, to adapt to the changes sparked by the coronavirus.<\/p>\nOf particular concern was how the college could help its students and their families, many of whom have seen a significant change in their financial situations. Fortunately, in the months following the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, alumni, parents, and friends joined together to donate more than $5 million to help their fellow Bantams.<\/p>\n
As the pandemic unfolded, Trinity\u2019s previously established Student Emergency and Equity Fund (SEEF) became a critical lifeline. The fund addresses the reality that even the cost of a bus ticket home can be crippling to some students.<\/p>\n
Bettina Cecilia Gonzalez \u201916 is one of the young alumni who gave to the fund. \u201cI was thinking about how it would have been for me as a student at this time. I was a low-income student. I wouldn\u2019t know where to go or how to scrape the funds to get somewhere if I had to immediately leave the college,\u201d says Gonzalez. \u201cI wanted to step up and do what I can for students who might have the same worries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Gonzalez, other alumni were interested in making an impact where it mattered most. \u201cPhilanthropy is about coming together around the college and around each other,\u201d says Jennifer Blum \u201988. Blum is a founding member of the Marjorie Butcher Circle (MBC), formed in 2019 to enhance the role of women in philanthropy at the college and honoring the college\u2019s first female tenured professor. \u201cTrinity shaped a lot of us,\u201d she says. Blum and the MBC, which is eager to support students and young alumni, recognized how COVID-19 has made things especially hard for these two groups. \u201cI don\u2019t think you could pick a better time to have a leadership organization like the Marjorie Butcher Circle. Philanthropy is about acting for good and with purpose, in addition to being about raising funds,\u201d Blum says. \u201cThere is no question this is a transformational time in higher education, for this circle and for alumni in general. If the MBC can bring new ideas on philanthropy and purpose to the college, then it will be hugely successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Trinity Trustee Henry D\u2019Auria \u201983 is an ardent believer in the power of philanthropy, particularly in times of crisis. \u201cPhilanthropy is an outgrowth of whatever passions you have, and now is the time to make your passion known,\u201d he says. As Trinity pivoted to remote learning and began short- and long-term planning for post-coronavirus education, some leadership donors like D\u2019Auria directed their giving to current-use financial aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinancial aid was a priority for me even before COVID-19,\u201d says D\u2019Auria. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to build schools that attract diverse candidates, and with the rapid rise of the cost of higher education, being able to supplement family income with financial aid is even more important. Being able to ensure that the next generation gets access to such a strong education is critical in this period when our nation and the world\u2019s competitiveness requires using every person better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trinity community\u2019s support came in gifts large and small, from those wishing to secure the long-term outlook for students and those who simply saw a need to help students get through a difficult semester. Paul Sullivan \u201995, the \u201cWealth Matters\u201d columnist for The New York Times <\/em>and a former member of the Trinity College Board of Fellows, says, \u201cPeople who are thinking about giving divide it into two buckets\u2014the first is philanthropy, and the second is charity.\u201d Philanthropy, he explains, includes the long-term gifts people make to build their legacy. Charity, in contrast, is a response to a crisis or immediate need.<\/p>\nThis past spring, Trinity students benefited from both, with the SEEF providing urgent resources students needed, and the long-term vision of donors who chose to bolster financial aid funds offering continuing resources for students to pursue their liberal arts education in fulfillment of the college\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
Trinity College Alumni Association President Eric Estes \u201991, vice president for campus life at Brown University, knows that the surge of generosity couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. \u201cWorking in higher education, I know firsthand the unprecedented challenges faced by students and their families in this difficult moment,\u201d he says. \u201cThey need our support more than ever so that all students can thrive inside and outside of the classroom at Trinity. That\u2019s why I decided to give.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trinity community steps up amid health crisis By Tess Dudek-Rolon As the COVID-19 pandemic began to upend life across the globe last spring, higher-education institutions faced existential questions about their futures. Trinity College, like its peers, reevaluated carefully laid plans for institutional strategy, including fundraising priorities, to adapt to the changes sparked by the coronavirus. … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Giving from the heart”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":1464,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6389\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2020\/files\/2020\/09\/36-37_Development_F20_Rd2-1.jpg\")
<\/a>As the COVID-19 pandemic began to upend life across the globe last spring, higher-education institutions faced existential questions about their futures. Trinity College, like its peers, reevaluated carefully laid plans for institutional strategy, including fundraising priorities, to adapt to the changes sparked by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n