Foundation Relations

Westmont College is honored to partner with a number of foundations across the country whose interests parallel Westmont’s mission. This common bond forms a driving force that propels many of the college’s academic programs and scholarships, research initiatives, equipment purchases, and buildings in which our students, faculty and their activities thrive and flourish. We are deeply grateful to each of our foundation partners in this work.

In our 2007-2008 fiscal year, foundations contributed $1.8 million, or 22.1 percent of all gifts to Westmont. Without significant support of foundations, such as these during the past 72 years, Westmont would not be the place it is today. Can you imagine a Westmont campus without Kerwood Hall, the Carroll Observatory, the Whittier Science Building, the Keck Physics and Engineering Lab, Murchison Gymnasium, or James Stamps Computer Lab? All of these facilities were made possible by generous gifts from foundations.

Thousands of Westmont graduates contribute to their communities and professions today in part because of the support of foundations who provided them scholarships or loans. Funding from foundations has also made possible everything from the purchase of spectrometers to bringing prominent guest lecturers, such as Madeleine L’Engle, David McCulloch, and Thomas Friedman to campus. In short, the generous support of foundations helps us to promote academic and research initiatives, to expand our horizons, and to dream new dreams.

We celebrate long-standing associations, value renewed relationships and welcome future partnerships with foundations who want to come alongside Westmont College to enable it to continue to excel as one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the nation.

We invite foundation representatives to come see our campus and learn more about how we can help each other to pursue our missions. If you would like to arrange for a campus tour, please contact Reed Sheard, Vice President for College Advancement and Chief Information Officer, at 805.565.7171 or email him at rsheard@westmont.edu.

Foundation grants in 08-09 have funded

• Phase One construction
• Endowed Chair in the Natural and Behavioral Sciences
• Software to create an audio file of textbooks for students who are visually impaired/have dyslexia
• Advancing disability awareness on campus
• Wildfire relief
• Biology research equipment
• Scholarships
• Emergency stock supplies
• Musical instruments
• Liberal Arts Ambassadors

Press Releases About Foundation Grants

• The Fletcher Jones Foundation Grants $1.5M for Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences
• Historian Installed as Social Science Chair
• Sempra Gives $20k to Wildfire Relief for Students
• Westmont Receives $1.5M for Science

Current Opportunities for Foundation Partnerships

• Phase One Construction
  • Adams Center for the Visual Arts
  • Winter Hall for Science and Mathematics
  • Observatory
  • Athletic Fields
• Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts Endowment
• Science Equipment
• Student Scholarships
• Faculty Chair Endowments
• Research Projects

 

Message from the President

Your investment in Westmont helps us accomplish our distinctive mission as a rigorous undergraduate, liberal arts college with a deep Christian commitment where students live in a close residential community and develop a broad global perspective.

The genius of Westmont lies in connecting these five essential characteristics in a unique educational experience that transforms young men and women into leaders inspired to change the world for Jesus Christ.

Students grow deeper in all areas of their lives -- intellectual, spiritual and personal -- while they develop their talents, discover their calling and prepare for a lifetime of service meeting the great, pressing needs of our time.