Significant gift will bolster higher education’s democratic engagement work
Campus Compact has secured a transformational gift—the largest in the organization’s history—to support innovation and growth in higher education’s democratic engagement work at scale.
The donation comes from Robert W. Gottesman and Trudy Elbaum Gottesman, who share a concern about the trajectory of American democracy and believe that higher education has a critical role to play in bolstering it by expanding civic participation and preparing students to lead in our democracy. Through their foundation, TruBob Fund, they chose to support Campus Compact because of its unique role as a national, member-driven network with deep partnerships.
Campus Compact’s infrastructure enables coordinated, sector-wide support—catalyzing campuses nationwide as they expand student engagement in public life, strengthen the capacity for democratic discourse, and elevate the public mission of higher education.
“We invested in Campus Compact because democracy’s future depends on preparing students—not just to participate, but to lead,” said Kevin Ashley, Executive Director of TruBob Fund. “Campus Compact gives institutions of every shape and size across this country the tools and support to center student voice and agency in their civic engagement work. When students learn to engage across difference, shape their communities, and exercise civic leadership—that’s the return on this investment.”
Over the next four years, Campus Compact will use the funds to strengthen cross-sector coalition building, to develop innovative initiatives designed to scale, and to ensure this work is supported by durable infrastructure for long-term sustainability. Together, these efforts will provide a critical infusion of coordinated support for colleges and universities, helping institutions fortify their civic and democratic engagement work in a time when robust support has been scarce.
The primary activities funded by this grant include:
- Innovation cohorts and scaling challenges that provide participating campuses with access to support and funding as they test and iterate on new approaches to civic engagement
- Targeted, high-impact technical assistance that gives students, faculty, and staff the resources they need to advance change and evidence-based civic engagement — including the production and publishing of new resources, toolkits, and guides for doing the work.
- Increased opportunities for field leadership to recognize and resource leaders across Campus Compact member campuses, so that peers can learn from and replicate effective work.
- A new virtual membership hub where faculty, staff, and students on member campuses can engage in continuous learning, find needed resources, and connect with peers to exchange ideas and co-develop projects.
- New and expanded coalitions and networks that allow institutions to go deep together along identity, geography, and interest areas, with added backbone support from Campus Compact.
“It is critical that higher education institutions lead with purpose and for the public good, but we cannot do it alone,” said Jessica Howard, chair of the Campus Compact Board of Directors and president of Chemeketa Community College. “This generous support will equip Campus Compact with the resources it needs to deepen its support for institutions and lead the charge in our collective efforts to strengthen our democracy.”
To support these new bodies of work, Campus Compact will make a significant investment in staffing, with plans to add more than 10 new roles to support membership engagement, fundraising, storytelling, convenings, innovation, evaluation, and sustainability. This will be a period of historic, strategic growth for Campus Compact. It will position the organization to deliver new levels of support and help higher education realize its public mission.
“Our vision for supporting higher education’s public purpose has been clear, but we did not have the resources we needed to bring it to reality,” said Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur. “With this transformational gift, Campus Compact will be able to rapidly deliver on our mission, offering new levels of support to our members and developing new and innovative solutions that strengthen our democracy. We are so grateful for this partnership.”
To receive the greatest benefit from the activities funded by this gift, campuses are encouraged to explore Campus Compact Membership. Colleges and universities that join Campus Compact gain access to the tools, networks, and opportunities needed to lead with purpose and for the public good. To get involved, visit us at compact.org or sign up for our email newsletter at compact.org/subscribe.