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June 10, 2009
On this day 163 years ago, the vision of the Iowa Band "each to found a church and together a college" took its first step to reality when James J. Hill 1 made the College's first contribution and 12 members were elected as a Board of Trustees.
They expected the value of a Grinnell education would be measured by its application in the real world, which was enumerated in the founding charter, to educate students "for the honorable discharge of the duties of life," and later reinforced in the mission statement that graduates be "prepared in life and work to use their knowledge and their abilities to serve the common good."
I am writing with an important request, alum-to-alum, that you join fellow Grinnellians in support of our students who are learning to do well and do good in the world. In a time of economic stress and uncertainty, there is no better moment to affirm collective support for the core of our Grinnell education than in the participation of alumni.
One month before the June 30 deadline, the College is 1,846 alumni donors short of a 40 percent alumni gift participation rate (the coincidence surprised me and inspired this letter).
Our office is focusing volunteer and staff efforts, and I am asking for your help to reach a goal of 40 percent alumni participation. It is an audacious challenge. Never before have more than 1,200 alumni given in June, and it's been since 2001 that we had 40 percent alumni participation.
As you consider my request, please keep in mind that your gift is not to Grinnell, but rather your gift is through Grinnell for the impact Grinnellians have on the world. That impact is the educated students, and then alumni, going out into the world to make meaningful, positive, and inspired efforts to do well and do good.
For example, Nadine Baranshamaje '11 and David Paige '09 personify two ways in which College resources - your gifts - have a palpable and direct impact on students who will undoubtedly make their own impact on the world.
This late push for adding 1,846 alumni donors in June is rooted in the idea of what is possible - just like the possibilities and potential to make a difference in the world that a Grinnell liberal arts education enhances.
I'm sure those gathered around the room that June 10th day in Davenport in 1846 thought more about the possible than they did the impossible when they took action to bring the vision of their college to reality. Please honor the excellence of what Grinnell has become - the Iowa Band's vision in the deeds, achievements, and impact of our alumni - with a gift this June.
President John H.T. Main said, "It is one thing to make a living, and quite another to make a life." Gifts through the College light a path for Grinnellians making a life and making a difference from the larger world to the smallest community.
Please honor your path and the countless paths yet to be explored by current and future Grinnellians with your gift, through Grinnell, today.
Sincerely,
Mickey Munley '87
Vice-President for College and Alumni Relations
P.S. The perspective that a gift is not to Grinnell, but is instead through Grinnell to the impact students and alums have on the world, makes the value of broad alumni participation clear: many hands lighten the load and deepen the well.
1 For those who wonder, Grinnell's James J. Hill was a native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin who labored as an evangelist and organized many churches in Iowa and the adjacent counties of Illinois and Minnesota. He died at the age of 52 on October 29, 1870 and was laid to rest in Grinnell.
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