You were once one of them.
For more than a century, Wharton has been creating tomorrow’s leaders. Like generations of top business students, you arrived at Wharton with your dreams and left with the tools and skills necessary to change the world. Along the way, you gained new perspectives, confidence, a global network of friends, and a degree that could help you fulfill your dreams. From the day you graduated, you never had to look back.
There are times when you need to look back.
You were chosen from a very competitive field of applicants because Wharton recognized your talents, abilities, and achievements. What you may not know is that others who attended the School before you made your Wharton education possible. Wharton’s tuition covered less than one half the cost of the education you received. The balance was funded through the generosity of generations of Wharton alumni who preceded you. Philanthropy is what makes the Wharton experience possible. To whom much is given, much is expected.
Think about where you started and what you have achieved.
As you look back, think about how others helped you reach your goals. Just as a strong foundation was laid for you, it is now your turn to lay the foundation for a new generation of business leaders. With your gift to the Campaign for Sustained Leadership, you will become a shareholder in the institution that helped you achieve your dreams – and you will play an important role in helping others achieve theirs. In doing so, you will become part of the Wharton legacy.
The Campaign – the Case for Support
Today, Wharton is recognized as the world’s top business school. To the generations of Wharton alumni, this is no surprise. As the first business school in the world, Wharton has helped to shape business education for nearly a century and a quarter. Throughout this time, Wharton has remained relentlessly innovative and entrepreneurial. Today, we have the finest faculty and student body in the world. Our alumni are among the greatest leaders and innovators in business and industry. The Wharton name has become synonymous with excellence. As Wharton’s achievements have grown, even more is expected of us.
Wharton has reached this pinnacle of accomplishment the old-fashioned way – through vision, innovation, and hard work. It has also attained its position in higher education with limited resources. Wharton has made a habit of doing more with less. Through skillful resource management, we have provided a world-class education to generations of our students without the level of endowment or annual support enjoyed by our peers.
Hence, the need for the campaign. It is imperative that we develop the resources that will enable Wharton to continue its role as the most innovative business school in the world. We operate in a highly competitive environment. To retain the best faculty, to attract the finest students, and to develop the world’s premier business school facility, we must be able to compete with institutions that are far wealthier.
This is the first campaign dedicated solely to Wharton. As alumni, you are the products and the beneficiaries of one of the world’s greatest educational experiences. This campaign is an important moment in our alma mater’s history. Your generous support will help Wharton reach even greater heights in the next century.
Attracting and Keeping the Best Faculty
Our faculty IS Wharton. They are our intellectual capital. They run our respected research centers, generating knowledge that impacts the world, and they provide our students with the vital link between theory and practice. Our faculty’s prestige and credibility draw top student applicants.
Recently, Professor Howard Kunreuther, Wharton’s Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy, was given the Distinguished Achievement Award for 2001 from the Society for Risk Analysis for his extraordinary work in risk assessment and perception. This is just one example of the caliber of faculty from which our students benefit each day.
To attract and retain such faculty, we must be able to provide endowed chairs for all of our full professorships. Currently, we are one of the only top business schools that does not. Your gift can help establish an endowed chair and give a stellar faculty member a permanent home at Wharton.
An Extraordinary Student Community
What makes Wharton stand out from the crowd? The talent, energy, and diversity of our student community. Students come to Wharton from around the world, from every conceivable background, and they are chosen for their potential to make a difference in the future of business. Each has the rare ability to synthesize knowledge and experience into positive change.
We are competing for these students with schools around the world. It is critical that Wharton provide scholarships and MBA fellowships, especially for women and underrepresented minorities, if we are to maintain the high quality of students for which we are renowned. Your support is critical to Wharton’s future. When you support one student’s dreams, you strengthen the entire Wharton community
Facilities for a World-Class Future
With the opening of Jon M. Huntsman Hall this fall, Wharton will enter a new era. Until now, Wharton has maximized the potential of a limited physical plant. As Wharton has enhanced its curriculum, we have outgrown our facilities. When we conducted an assessment of facility space, we found that Wharton had less than a third of Harvard’s, half of Stanford’s, and less space than the average U.S. public high school. For Wharton, Huntsman Hall is not a luxury, but a necessity
This new academic building, which will be the world’s premier business school facility, is symbolic of Wharton’s continuous growth and strength. For the first time in years, it will bring all of our students together under one roof, creating a stronger sense of Wharton community and identity. As in the past, alumni gifts have made this unparalleled learning environment possible. But additional gifts are still needed to complete and maintain this monumental project. Our goal to have the building completely funded by alumni will help us to integrate past, present, and future generations of Wharton, truly making this a representation of the Wharton community. A number of exciting naming opportunities remain.
Programming on the Cutting Edge
Wharton is known for the relentless innovation that shapes everything we do. Your contributions make it possible for us to design and redesign our curricula, keeping Wharton one step ahead of the changing world of business.
Consider Wharton’s Global Consulting Practicum, which teams MBA students with top managers from international firms to develop strategic marketing plans. Add WEMBA, our acclaimed executive education program that alumni helped expand to the West Coast, and our global alliance with INSEAD, Europe’s top business school. In addition, Wharton is home to the world’s leading entrepreneurial center, which sponsors the renowned Wharton Business Plan Competition.
Wharton’s 18 research centers, headed by our faculty and recognized worldwide for their impact on the business community, add depth and prestige to Wharton’s programs. The Center for Leadership and Change Management is exploring new ways to help executives face the growing challenges of turbulent markets. The Center for Human Resources contributes valuable insight on workers and the workplace. And WeBI, the Wharton e-business initiative, is bringing business into the 21st century with its state-of-the-art analyses of online customer behavior. Thanks to your gifts, these centers, and many others, will grow and prosper
Perhaps most notable is the success of Knowledge@Wharton, a bi-weekly online resource that offers the latest business insights, information, and research from a variety of sources. In its January issue, Inc. magazine reviewed 50 top business school websites. Knowledge@Wharton topped the list. Knowledge@Wharton has been live since May of 1997 and currently has more than 155,000 subscribers in 185 countries.
Wharton’s recognition is widespread. In 2000, the Academy of Management Journal ranked Wharton first among its peers in productivity of management and business disciplines. The Financial Times ranked Wharton above the rest in research. BusinessWeek ranked Wharton on top in cumulative faculty knowledge.
Wharton’s world-renowned programs, research centers, and initiatives made possible through your vision have become industry standards. To continue this success, Wharton needs your visionary support as well.
Creating a Competitive Endowment
Because of Wharton’s reputation for excellence, many believe that we already have a large endowment. Not so. In actuality, our endowment is relatively small compared to those of our main competitors. In comparison with our peers:
- Wharton is 10th in endowment per student.
- Wharton is 9th in endowment per faculty member
- Wharton’s endowment at of the end of fiscal year ’01 was $357.7 million and supports both undergraduate and graduate programs, as compared to Harvard’s $1.3 billion for the MBA programs alone.**
- Wharton’s endowment is less than Stanford’s, yet they have one fifth the class size of ours and only a graduate program
In all other aspects of business school education, Wharton competes effectively…and comes out ahead. But to continue to build upon our excellence, we need to strengthen Wharton’s financial base. This can only be achieved through your generous support. If you don’t accept the challenge, who will? Here’s your chance to unite with your fellow alumni and level the financial playing field once and for all.
Building a Future Without Boundaries
Your unrestricted donations are critical to Wharton’s ability to achieve success in all of the areas outlined above. They allow us to be flexible and to immediately take advantage of new opportunities. Each year, thousands of you support the School through unrestricted gifts to the Wharton Fund. Using your gift, we will continue to inspire students to lead, take risks, and innovate – on campus, after graduation, and throughout their careers.
Peter Fader, Associate Professor, explains a concept to students
Become a Shareholder in Wharton’s Future
Through a gift to the Campaign for Sustained Leadership, you are making an investment in the most talented business students in the world: the leaders of tomorrow. In addition, you are investing in the vision on which Wharton was founded, a vision that evolves and grows stronger each year.
You represent Wharton to the outside world. Every day, your accomplishments enhance the value of the Wharton brand. In return, you benefit from the prestige and global reputation that accompany a Wharton degree.
Your investment in Wharton’s future will enable the school to compete with other schools with greater resources. Doing so will build upon Wharton’s legacy of innovation, leadership, and excellence. Share the pride and advantage that Wharton has given you with future generations of leaders.
The case is clear. The need is great.
Help write the next chapter of Wharton’s history through your support of the Campaign for Sustained Leadership.
For more information, please contact: Steven Oliveira Associate Dean External Affairs 344 Vance Hall 3733 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 215.898.5047 oliveirs@wharton.upenn.edu
