Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD): Financial Aid Challenge
By Bowdoin CollegeIn 2020, Bowdoin made a bold promise: that family income will never be a barrier to attending the College or to a full Bowdoin experience. We are able to make that promise—and keep it—because of the generosity of our alumni community.
From Monday, November 14, to Friday, November 18, the Classes of 2013–2022 (graduates of the last decade—or GOLD) and the senior class rallied together to support financial aid at Bowdoin.
The challenge was issued by an anonymous alumni couple who are passionate about financial aid and wanted to rally young alumni participation. If five hundred GOLD alumni and seniors donated any amount to any Alumni Fund designation by midnight on Friday, November 18, the couple would give $100,000 to support financial aid at Bowdoin.
Additionally, classes competed to have the most donors so that their class banner would be hung again in Thorne Hall for the rest of the academic year, demonstrating the collective impact of alumni giving to current students and serving as a point of class pride. Every member of the winning class would also receive a commemorative class banner sticker to celebrate their win and strength as a class.
At the end of the week, six hundred GOLD alumni and seniors participated, unlocking the anonymous couple’s $100,000 gift to financial aid and raising an additional $15,770 to support every area of the College. And the winning Class of 2020, with eighty-three donors and one of the youngest classes in the challenge, will have their class banner proudly hung in Thorne once again.