NORTHAMPTON — Smith College announced Thursday that the school has received its largest ever planned gift: a bequest intention of $51 million.
The donation, which comes from an anonymous donor from the Class of 1979, will pay for two faculty positions — one in engineering and one in statistical and data science — and financial aid for students.
In a statement put out by the college, the donor explained why she is bequeathing the money to Smith.
“Supplementing financial aid endowment will allow young, intelligent women from all economic backgrounds to realize their biggest dreams for educational opportunity, permitting them to make a difference in their local communities, in their nations, and in the advancement of humankind worldwide,” she said. “In an age in which it is more important than ever for women to excel in technology, especially in the fields of engineering and computing, it is crucial to endow a leading educational institution like Smith College and to benefit women’s contributions in the STEM fields.”
The college itself began with a planned gift: on March 8, 1870, Sophia Smith signed the final version of her will, creating Smith College with a bequest of about $400,000. The school, she wrote, would have “the design to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our Colleges to young men.”
Smith died a few months later, and the school opened with an inaugural class of 14 students five years later, in September 1875. This year, the school is celebrating its 150th anniversary with programming throughout the year, including with an event on Saturday called Founder’s Day.
Smith College President Sarah Willie-LeBreton said the $51 million bequest intention is an affirmation of the college’s commitment to access, affordability and equity.
“The generosity and care Smith alums have for future generations of Smithies is incredible to witness,” Willie-LeBreton said in a statement. “By making a commitment to both faculty and financial aid, this alum is securing the college’s future in an important, public way. Scholarships light the path to Smith for so many remarkable, high-achieving students.”
In 2021, Smith College removed loans from its aid packages, which led to a dramatic increase in applications; members of the Class of 2027 came from an applicant pool of nearly 10,000 students. Currently, the school gives more than $100 million in grants and scholarships, which benefit 67% of the student body, the college said.
Vice President Joanna May said in a statement, “Smith’s financial aid commitment strives not only to provide access to Smith, but to remove barriers to the Smith experience for current students, and ensure access to post-graduation opportunities without the burden of packaged student loans. The generosity of this alum will help support our current students as well as future students, opening doors for many more talented Smithies.”
According to the college’s Office of Planned Giving, other significant bequests to Smith have funded the Campus Center Cafe, paid for from the proceeds of selling Julia Child’s house in Cambridge; the school’s health center; the Praxis fund, which pays for students to take otherwise unpaid or low-paid internships; and a number of other centers and faculty positions.
Sam Samuels, director of gift planning at Smith, said the largest bequest the college had ever received was worth about $20 million, which was “like the cavalry coming in to the rescue” in the financial downturn of 2009, when the school’s endowment had shrunk significantly.
The largest outright gift Smith has received — that is, a gift received while the donor was still living — was worth $50 million.
“Financial aid is a critical fundraising priority today, and we can’t imagine a future in which we will run out of need for financial aid,” Samuels said.
Though most donations from alums are, of course, much smaller than $51 million, giving is still “is an incredible way for them to give the students of the future the kind of experience that was formative to their own lives.”
Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.
