Centre College launches a $450 million campaign with a $225 million anonymous gift

An anonymous donor has given Centre College $225 million to launch a $450 million fundraising campaign, the Kentucky college announced on October 16. The gift creates the Centre Forever Fund for endowed scholarships.

Centre is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky. It called the campaign, Pillars of Excellence: The Campaign for Centre College, the most ambitious in its 207-year history. We found no independent news coverage of the gift beyond the college's release; Inside Philanthropy's October 19 roundup summarized the same announcement.

What does the gift pay for?

The $225 million creates the Centre Forever Fund, which the college said will provide endowed merit-based and need-based scholarships and support academic excellence. An endowed scholarship is paid from the investment return on a permanent fund, not from the gift itself.

The campaign has six priorities, named for the six columns of Old Centre, a campus building: access and opportunity; academic excellence; innovation and technology; career, civic and cultural leadership; student experience and community life; and athletics and competitive excellence.

How far along is the campaign?

With the gift, the college said, it has raised $350 million since the campaign's quiet phase began in 2020, leaving $100 million to go. The goal is meant to help double Centre's endowment, which President Milton C. Moreland put at about $450 million.

The release does not say whether the $225 million will arrive as cash, a multi-year pledge or other assets, or over what period.

What did the donor and the college say?

"We believe in where this College is headed, and we hope this gift encourages others to join us in making a Centre education possible for every student who has earned it," the donor said in the college's release. Jess Metzmeier, vice president for engagement and advancement, said the donor "will ensure the success of the College for another hundred years." Mark Nunnelly, chair of the board of trustees and honorary campaign chair, pointed to Centre's "highly residential community and 10:1 student-faculty ratio."

Has Centre announced a gift this large before?

Yes. In July 2013 Centre announced a $250 million all-stock gift from the Brockman Charitable Trust to create a scholars program. In September 2013 a college official told WKMS that "for reason unknown to the college, the transaction is not going forward." The 2026 gift comes from a different, unnamed donor, and nothing in the new announcement points to a similar problem.

What other campaigns can learn

In our view, an anonymous lead gift works best as a public invitation, and the donor's own words say as much. Centre's history adds a practical point for any board: a headline gift is only as firm as its paperwork, so it helps to know whether it is cash, stock or a pledge before the campaign counts on it. We have not seen the gift agreement. For how a long campaign closes out, see Northern Iowa's $342.8 million campaign.