The College of William and Mary officially announced Friday that the endowment for the Gateway program has surpassed $10 million, a benchmark set by the Board of Visitors in the spring.
The Flat Hat first reported that the Gateway endowment had surpassed $10 million in October after College President Taylor Reveley announced it at a meeting of the College chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Gateway William and Mary is a financial program that provides debt relief to Virginian students whose families make less than $40,000 per year.
The endowment now stands at $10.7 million.
“Not only did the College community come together and meet the challenge of establishing a solid footing for Gateway William and Mary, they have exceeded our own expectations,” Board of Visitors Rector Michael Powell ’85 said in a press release. “In true William & Mary fashion, the College community supported this effort fully, growing the fund to provide additional resources to offer a William & Mary education regardless of need.”
Donations to the endowment came from a variety of groups. The Christopher Wren Association gave $150,000. A donation from a faculty and staff group called Gateway Guardians added another $59,000.
The Board of Visitors collectively gave $1 million and matched the donations from the CWA and Gateway Guardians. The largest donation came from Joan Jarrett Woods ’40, who left the Gateway program $5 million in her will. Woods’ donation was announced in the spring.
When the $10 million initiative was announced in April, the endowment totaled $1.65 million.
