The Albright Endowment Tops $53 Million

Building the Albright endowment was one of the three goals of Crossing Boundaries: The Campaign for Albright. Over the past 60 months, gifts designated for endowment totaled $12,677,136-one third of all funds raised—bringing the total endowment from about $40 million to $53 million as of June 30, 2007.

Major gifts to the endowment include the largest bequest in Albright’s history, $3.5 million from Ella Rist; a gift of $1.5 million from Lillian and Robert R. Gerhart Jr.; and a bequest of $800,000 from Elizabeth Blecker Bergstedt ’37. Rist, the widow of Charles A. Rist ’51, established a scholarship for Berks County students to study business. The Gerharts’ gift was to establish a faculty chair in communicastions. Bergstedt’s gift established the Elizabeth and Gustave Bergstedt Endowed Scholarship for financially needy and deserving students.

According to President Lex McMillan, Albright’s endowment is far smaller than that of peer schools. “A healthy endowment is the underpinning of an institution’s financial stability. It allows us resources to expand the educational experience and provides scholarships and significant aid to outstanding students with need. An institution of Albright’s size should have an endowment of about $100 million. I am delighted that we have made such major strides in building the endowment in such a short time.”

-source The Albright Reporter

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