Dare Northward Surpasses $1B Milestone with Two Years Remaining in Campaign
The historic campaign transforming Colby will continue through 2027
Colby’s historic Dare Northward campaign—scheduled to conclude in December 2027—has substantially exceeded $1 billion thanks to the generous support of donors and their continued commitment to the College and its leadership. In reaching this new milestone, Dare Northward becomes the most successful campaign at a liberal arts college.
Colby’s campaign was the largest fundraising initiative by a liberal arts college when it was originally announced with a goal of $750 million. When that goal was surpassed early in the campaign, the College raised the goal to $1 billion. And now that ceiling, too, has been shattered with two years left to reach new heights—all in an effort to ensure the liberal arts and sciences remain the most powerful form of education in a rapidly changing world.
Dare Northward has provided extraordinary opportunities for students and faculty to become creative thinkers, innovators, and leaders, and it has positioned the College as a global pacesetter in higher education committed to the liberal arts and prepared for advances in science and technology.
“At a time when the national narrative is about a lack of support for higher education, the Colby community has stepped forward to demonstrate the power of commitment and philanthropy to transform their college, the very essence of a liberal arts college, and the capacity for private institutions to act in the public interest,” said President David A. Greene. “In the final phase of the campaign, our focus will be on excellence in science, technology, innovation, and financial aid, essential ingredients for a great liberal arts college now and into the future.”
Impacting every aspect of life at Colby, the campaign embodies the strategic vision of the College to make the liberal arts more deeply engaged with and connected to the broader world and its complexities.
Dare Northward has allowed the College to establish a transformative financial aid program centered on meeting the full financial needs of admitted students without loans, while expanding the curriculum, the size of the faculty and scope of their expertise, global and domestic student experiences, and a far-reaching network of community partnerships. Colby created the first institute for artificial intelligence among liberal arts colleges, and it established and augmented its centers, labs, and institutes to create more opportunities for students and faculty to develop and deeply explore their academic interests.
With a priority on community engagement and partnerships, the campaign has enabled Colby to lead an investment of more than $250 million in downtown Waterville, helping the city become a model for post-industrial renewal and resulting in two new art centers, new housing, a boutique hotel, and several new businesses.
Colby has created best-in-class facilities on campus, including the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts, the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center, and more than 650 beds in new residence halls for students. It expanded its off-campus footprint with the opening of the 500-acre Island Campus in Muscongus Bay, and new partnerships will help revitalize the historic waterfront of Port Clyde in St. George, Maine, as the home of the College’s new Center for Resilience and Economic Impact.
A future-facing investment in science and technology
As Dare Northward continues, Colby is focused on building a science program that specializes in public health, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, and materials engineering. With a $150-million lead commitment toward a planned $500-million investment in science and technology, the new funding will strategically position Colby within Maine’s burgeoning science ecosystem and enable the College to build a state-of-the-art science complex to address current and future science, educational, and research needs.
The investment in the sciences builds on the recently established McVey Center for Computational and Data Sciences and the sector-leading Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Colby’s efforts around science, technology, and innovation will result in an extensive renovation of the historic Runnals Building to house the new Levine’s Discovery Headquarters.
‘The impact of the more than 32,000 gifts made to this campaign is vital now and will be felt for the next century. … The Colby community always rises to the challenge, and I have no doubt that it will continue as we push forward on a dynamic vision for the liberal arts that is affordable, deeply connected to the world, and preparing students to lead in a rapidly changing world. We could not be more grateful for this support.’
President David A. Greene
Guaranteed affordability
A foundational component of Dare Northward has been transformative support for financial aid, which has led to Colby’s aid packages being ranked the most generous in the country for the neediest students. The expansion of this program for middle-income families, called the Fair Shot Fund, guarantees a substantial cap on tuition, room, and board. It also makes a Colby education more affordable than many public, in-state institutions for middle-income families. This initiative means families earning up to $200,000, $150,000, and $100,000 can expect an annual contribution of no more than $20,000, $15,000, and $10,000, respectively, for tuition, room, and board. Parents or guardians who earn a total income of $75,000 or less can expect to contribute $0 toward the cost of their student’s college education.
The impact of these transformational gifts will be felt for generations, and thousands of students and their families will benefit, ensuring that Colby’s financial aid program remains one of the most generous programs in the country.
In other areas of impact, Dare Northward has:
- Added nearly 60 new full-time faculty lines, created 10 new majors, and five new minors.
- Through the Haynesville Project, invested nearly $5 million in individual grants to tenured faculty to pursue new avenues of research, professional growth, and for personal use.
- Led by DavisConnects, created nearly 2,300 partnerships with individuals and organizations and provided approximately $8 million of funding for students to access meaningful academic and life experiences.
- Supported more than $2.5 billion in economic activity across Maine, including $1.3 billion in greater Waterville, from fiscal years 2019 through 2024.
- Developed more than 125,000 gross square feet of arts facilities, including the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts on campus and the Paul J. Schupf Art Center and the Greene Block & Studios in downtown Waterville. In addition, the campaign has enabled the continued growth of the Colby College Museum of Art’s collection, created access to art across campus, and expanded the impact and reach of the Lunder Institute for American Art.
- Improved residential life for students with the addition of 650 new beds among the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons in downtown Waterville (2018), Johnson Pond Houses (2022), and a residential community under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2026.
- Engaged in more than 10,000 hours annually of community service by students, including the work completed by the 200 Colby students who live downtown in the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons through the O’Hanian-Szostak Fellowship for Civic Engagement.
- Opened the 350,000-square-foot Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center, home of Colby’s varsity athletics program and campus-wide recreation and club-sports programs that emphasize fitness, recreation, and lifelong healthy habits for the benefit of students, faculty, and staff.
- Acquired two historic islands in Muscongus Bay. The 500-acre Island Campus creates academic opportunities across disciplines for Colby students. The islands are where renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth painted some of his greatest works, inspired and influenced by the landscape and architecture curated by his wife, Betsy.
“The impact of the more than 32,000 gifts made to this campaign is vital now and will be felt for the next century,” said Greene. “We have more work to do for Colby to ensure its permanent place among the world’s great centers for teaching, learning, and scholarship. The Colby community always rises to the challenge, and I have no doubt that it will continue as we push forward on a dynamic vision for the liberal arts that is affordable, deeply connected to the world, and preparing students to lead in a rapidly changing world. We could not be more grateful for this support.”
