Welcome to the 2006–07 report for
Partners in Annual Giving.

With this report I extend a heartfelt "Thank You" to the 14,487 alumni, parents, and friends of the college whose gifts last year enabled our college to flourish. In all, St. Olaf received $20,959,366 in gifts and pledges last year, including $3,607,569 in gifts to Partners, our annual giving program. Those gifts enabled us to proceed with construction of the new science building in one phase, to provide financial aid to students, to recruit and retain faculty and staff dedicated to the mission of the college, and to do the many other things that, taken together, create the St. Olaf experience.  

Why, you might ask, when the college is receiving a record number of applications from prospective students, new buildings are arising from the ground and old ones such as Boe Memorial Chapel are receiving breathtaking renovations, and the endowment has crossed the $300 million mark, should I make another gift to St. Olaf in the coming year? Isn't the college doing very well on its own?

The answer to that question takes us directly to the financial model upon which private liberal arts colleges like St. Olaf operate. The cost of providing a St. Olaf education exceeds what students at the college are expected to pay. If you take the comprehensive fee for 2007-08 of $38,500, multiply it by the number of students we have, and then subtract the costs of institutional financial aid we provide to make St. Olaf affordable to families with need, you end up with a number that is approximately $30 million less than our annual budget. If you then add the earnings from our endowment that we are able to use to help support the budget, a gap of $20 million still remains between the cost of providing a St. Olaf education and the revenue that enables us to provide it. How do we close that gap? Government grants, auxiliary revenue (from, for example the bookstore), and other fees we charge close part of the gap. The rest is closed by gifts to the college, and most of the gifts that fund our annual operation come to us through the Partners program. Without your support of the Partners program, we cannot continue to provide a St. Olaf education.

As a St. Olaf student in the early 1970s I received financial aid. That aid and the rest of my St. Olaf experience was made possible in part through gifts to Partners made by alumni, parents, and friends of the college. I give to St. Olaf College now in thanksgiving for the education I received, the professors who taught me, the friends I made, and the life skills I acquired as a student. I also give in recognition that it falls to each generation of Oles to help provide a St. Olaf experience for the generations who come after us. I hope that this report will inspire you to begin, to continue, or to increase your giving as well.

On behalf of St. Olaf students and the Partners in Annual Giving, I thank you for your generous support of our college.

Sincerely,

David R. Anderson '74
President, St. Olaf College