In her first year as president of Bowie State University, Aminta Breaux charged the institution’s new vice president for institutional advancement with one priority: Grow the endowment.
At the time in 2018, Maryland’s oldest historically Black university had a modest $6.8 million endowment. A smaller endowment means less financial aid availability for students and less access to funding for faculty research.
For an institution enrolling its largest student body in its history that fall, totaling 6,320 students, that amount could only go so far. So Brent Swinton, who is also executive director of the BSU Foundation, set forth with a new fundraising strategy.
So far, it’s worked. As of today, Bowie State has a $36 million endowment, a nearly 430% growth. In 2018, the size of the average gift in a year was $600. Now, it’s $3,000.
