Alumni making a difference for students at Jewell

An Open Letter of Thanks to Dianne Shumaker ’66:

Dear Dianne,

On behalf of the students, faculty, staff, Board of Trustees, and over 13,300 alumni of William Jewell College, please accept this letter as an expression of our gratitude.

As your Shumaker Challenge concludes its third and final year, we take time to reflect on what this annual giving challenge has done to preserve and propel the Jewell experience.  The ultimate impact is difficult to measure as you have inspired alumni who will continue to support Jewell students each year for the rest of their lives.  Their annual giving makes them co-creators in the Jewell experience, and that experience finds expression in the lives of students and future graduates in ways that can never be quantified. Your challenge was a call to our alumni in a time when we needed them the most. 

Allow me to share the outcome of your  challenge to alumni:
 

• Alumni are now providing for over 30 percent of the annual deficit created by the loss of Missouri Baptist Convention funding. 

• The annual alumni giving percentage increased from 17 percent to 24 percent.

• Over 800 alumni made their first annual commitment to Jewell students and many were recent graduates.

• Just this year, over 500 alumni and friends made firm three-year commitments to the Jewell Fund, allowing students to count on their commitment and support as they move through their time at Jewell.

Dianne, we thank you for valuing the Jewell experience and believing that our approach to education for the last 158 years was something worth protecting.  We thank you for acknowledging the positive impact the College had on your life and realizing that it was the gifts of others who made your Jewell experience possible.  We thank you for realizing that Jewell continues to offer a transformational experience to the people who will significantly impact the world in which we live.

Perhaps most importantly, we thank you for asking the important question, “If not alumni, then who will stand for Jewell?”

Dianne, we appreciate you very much.

For Jewell,

Chad J. Jolly, Ph.D. ’94
Vice President for
Institutional Advancement