Peace College Announces $30 Million Fundraising Campaign
October 17, 2008
RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct. 17, 2008) – Peace College unveiled on Friday the largest fundraising campaign in the college’s history – the $30 million Promise of Peace Campaign. Almost $20 million has been raised during the silent (nonpublic) phase of the campaign.
The Promise of Peace Campaign seeks to raise funds to help fulfill the transformation of Peace that began more than a decade ago when the leadership of the college adopted the ambition of becoming a baccalaureate college, said President Laura Bingham. “We launch the public phase of this campaign with the knowledge that our community and its supporters have much to give to Peace College to benefit the students of today and of tomorrow,” said President Laura Bingham. “This campaign builds on the support we’ve enjoyed since moving to baccalaureate status in 1995, with the expectation that continued investments will allow us to extend the benefits of Peace in increasingly meaningful and powerful ways.”
The public phase of the campaign was launched Friday with an event to include lunch on the college’s front lawn, student performances and presentations that included a stop by “Mr. William Peace” (performed by Dr. Kenny Gannon, Theatre Director and Associate Professor), the Peace Pacers, the Peace College Dance Company, the Peace College Chamber Singers, and culminated with a special lighting of the college’s historic Main Building and its four columns. The college also held a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for the $3.8 million renovation and expansion of the college’s Lucy Cooper Finch Library, a project being funded with Promise of Peace donations, during the day.
The College also announced an anonymous campaign committment that pushed fundraising past a significant milestone.
Bingham introduced the co-chairs of the campaign: Lou Willett Mitchell, a 1962 graduate of Peace, and her husband, Burley Mitchell, Jr., a former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court whose mother and grandmother both attended Peace.
“We are pleased to join this campaign, to support a college that has demonstrated great accomplishment in educating women from the state capital and beyond for many years,” said Burley Mitchell. “Peace has had great success during the last decade with student and academic achievements. We look forward to working with other volunteer leaders to advance the college’s transformation.”
Serving as vice-chairs are Susan Barnes Lilly, a 1991 Peace graduate, and her husband, Steven C. Lilly, chief financial officer of Triangle Capital Corporation, a Raleigh-based business development company.
In conjunction with the Promise of Peace Campaign announcement activities, the college on Friday planned to award the William Peace Medallion, the college’s highest honor, to the A.E. Finley Foundation. The honor is in recognition of the foundation’s support for Peace, represented by more than $1.6 million in gifts since the 1960s.
Some additional facts about the Promise of Peace Campaign:
• The Promise of Peace Campaign was launched in the fall of 2004.
• The campaign is raising funds for construction and renovation projects, endowments for scholarships, professorships and other programs, and other funding for student and faculty support programs.
• The campaign has raised $11 million for new endowments.
• The college has received three gifts or pledges of $1 million or more, six gifts or pledges of $500,000, seven gifts or pledges of $250,000, and more than 30 gifts of $100,000.
• Giving to the college’s annual fund reached a record $522,000 last year, surpassing the previous record by more than 10 percent.
• Prior to this campaign, Peace College’s largest fundraising campaign was the “Pathways to Excellence” campaign, which was completed in 2000, raising more than $15 million.
The public phase of the campaign is being launched after a successful fundraising drive among trustees and members of the college’s other boards raised $7.5 million in gifts and pledges.
“Our unprecedented success in gaining support from the college’s leadership groups speaks strongly to the strength of support Peace enjoys,” Bingham said. Recent turmoil in financial markets would not keep the college from moving forward with the campaign, Bingham said. “We are mindful of the uncertainty of the financial markets, but our first donors in the last few years have shown considerable confidence and generosity,” she said. “We must honor their commitment to Peace and move forward with this important campaign and the significant investments it promises.”
Among the projects being funded by Promise of Peace gifts is the renovation and expansion of Peace’s Lucy Cooper Finch Library, located on the front of campus facing Peace Street. A ceremonial groundbreaking for the project was held Friday afternoon. Giving to the project has been led by brothers Fin Gaddy of Manteo, N.C., and Will Gaddy of Whistler, BC, Canada, grandsons of the library’s original benefactor for whom the building is named. Martin Marietta made the first gift for the library and the Cannon Foundation recently made a grant of $200,000 for the project.
The library project will add 2,200 square feet to the building and refashion the facility into a modern learning center featuring a “learning commons” with computer stations and workspaces where students can conduct research and study together. The college’s learning services programs will move into the renovated building, as will information technology support staff, bringing into one building a variety of student academic services. The project is expected to be completed in fall 2009, 40 years after its construction.
“The library renovation and expansion represents just one of the important investments Peace is making, and expects to make, with Promise of Peace funds to bolster our academic program,” said Michael Magoon, vice president of development and alumnae affairs. “We also plan science laboratory renovations and other campaign-funded projects that are intended to enhance the academic and social offerings Peace extends to its students.”
Peace College is a four-year baccalaureate arts and sciences college that offers a challenging program of study that provides women strong intellectual and personal foundations upon which to build successful and meaningful professional and academic careers. Peace’s educational program regularly earns high evaluations in the National Survey of Student Engagement.
For more information about the Peace College or the Promise of Peace Campaign, visit the Peace website – www.peace.edu.
Bios of the Promise of Peace campaign leadership
Co-Chairs: Lou Willett Mitchell and Burley B. Mitchell Jr.
Lou Willett Mitchell is an active Peace alumna, having graduated from Peace in 1967. She most recently chaired the college’s William Peace statue campaign for the College’s Sesquicentennial in 2007. She has helped raise $11 million for The Healing Place, which treats alcoholism and drug addictions to build a center for women. She has helped the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Meals on Wheels organizations build a joint facility, and she also started the Raleigh Hall of Fame. She was named Raleigh Woman of the Year in 2007 by Wake County.
As a judge, Burley Mitchell authored 484 appellate decisions for the N.C. Supreme Court and the N.C. Court of Appeals. For more than 30 years, Mitchell served both as an advocate and judge in handling landmark cases in North Carolina and elsewhere in the United States. Upon retiring from the Supreme Court, Mitchell took the lead of the law firm Womble Carlyle’s appellate advocacy and government relations groups. For the third consecutive year, Mitchell was voted one of the best commercial litigation lawyers and in 2007 was voted one of the best appellate law lawyers in North Carolina in the publication The Best Lawyers in America. Also in 2007, Mitchell received the prestigious North Carolina Award for Public Service, the highest civilian honor the state can bestow, and the North Carolina State University Alumni Association’s College Meritorious Service Award.
Vice Chairs: Steven C. Lilly and Susan Barnes Lilly
Steven C. Lilly, a member of Peace College’s Board of Trustees, is the chief financial officer, secretary, and treasurer and is a member of the board of directors for Triangle Capital Corporation, a publicly traded business development company headquartered in Raleigh. Previously, Lilly spent more than six years with SpectraSite, Inc., which prior to its sale in 2005, was the third-largest publicly traded independent wireless tower company in the United States. At SpectraSite, Steven served as senior vice president-finance and treasurer, as well as interim chief financial officer. Steven is a graduate of Davidson College and has completed the executive education program at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Wake County Boys & Girls Club, the Board of Directors of the Methodist Home for Children, and serves as an Honorary Co-Chair of the Aldert Root Elementary School Foundation Board. From 2006 to 2008, he served on the Board of Visitors at Peace College.
Susan Barnes Lilly received an associate’s degree from Peace College in 1991 and a bachelor’s degree from UNC-Wilmington in 1993. She has been her class reunion coordinator and is a community volunteer, homemaker and parent to their three children Mary Chandler, Collier Cobb, and Steven Jr.
Promise of Peace Campaign Cabinet
The campaign’s cabinet includes
• David and Kit Adcock of Bald Head Island, members of the college’s Parents’ Council.
• Julia Weskett Beasley of Raleigh, a 1944 graduate and Foundation Board member.
• Robin Rogers Branstrom of Charlotte, a 1970 graduate and member of the Board of Trustees.
• Beth Chadwick Cherry of Wilmington, a 1972 graduate, trustee and former Alumnae Association Board president.
• Lyl MacLean Clinard of High Point, a 1967 graduate and former Board of Visitors member.
• Pam Pace Heavner of Chapel Hill, a 1976 graduate and chair of the Board of Visitors.
• H. Terry Hutchens of Fayetteville, a member of the Board of Trustees.
• John A. “Sandy” and Deborah McNeill of Whiteville, Peace parents. Deborah McNeill is also a Peace trustee.
• Pe*ter J. Meehan* of Chapel Hill, chair of the Board of Trustees.
• W. Robert “Bob” Newell of Winston-Salem, a Peace trustee.
• Lee Adams Rast of Atlanta, a 1976 graduate and member of the college’s Board of Visitors.
• J. Worth Williamson, Jr. of Charlotte, a former chair of the Board of Trustees.
Notable gifts to the campaign
$1,000,000 or more
Anonymous (2)
The late Margaret “Peggy” Schweidler of Raleigh
$500,000-$999,999
Anonymous (3)
Fin Gaddy of Manteo, N.C., and Will Gaddy of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
Deborah S. and John A. “Sandy” McNeill of Whiteville, N.C.
The Ragland family of Raleigh
$250,000-$499,999
Anonymous (3)
The Cannon Foundation of Concord
The late Mary Frances Hester of Raleigh
Sara Jo Allen Manning of Raleigh
The late Virginia E. Watson of Raleigh
Sarah & J. Worth Williamson, Jr. of Charlotte
