The new Bond-Servant Plaza coming to campus is just one example of the many projects funded by generous donors.
On March 30, Taylor announced in a press release it had received a $10 million gift from the Bond Family Foundation. This gift is supporting three main projects, Mike Falder, vice president for university advancement, said: the chapel and welcome center, an endowed concert series and the Bond-Servant Plaza.
As the “all-inclusive” central area of campus, the new plaza encompasses a wide range of things, Falder said. The portion of the donation dedicated to the plaza will fund larger features like the amphitheater, stage and 50-foot campus cross. It will also finance smaller characteristics such as turf for the lawn, new landscaping and signage with Scripture on it.
This opportunity presented itself when the Bond family approached the school with a desire to fund something that would be an encouragement to students’ faith, the press release explained. Simultaneously, the university had been planning the new chapel and welcome center. Taylor and the Bond family collaborated to envision an intersection of the two.
The Bond family was very committed to the idea of a cross, Falder said, and Taylor is very committed to projects like the new chapel that foster community and worship. The idea of the plaza captured both visions.This is an example of how the university seeks to fulfill its distinct mission when receiving generous gifts while also striving to honor the unique aspirations of donors.
There is a list of priorities set by senior leadership and approved by the Board of Trustees, Falder said. Taylor seeks donations that help move these top-priority projects forward. There may be cases where people approach the school with a donation and give Taylor the freedom to use it how it wants. In these cases, Falder consults this list of priorities.
“There are alumni, parents and friends that maybe would give a gift and be like, ‘We trust you. Use it how you want to.’ In those cases, we already have predetermined institutional priorities,” he said. “And so when I'm given money with flexibility, I'm saying, the chapel and welcome center project is our highest priority, so the money's going to go there.”
Another priority for the school is putting money towards the Taylor Fund, which makes attendance at Taylor affordable and keeps tuition from rising more than necessary.
If donors approach Taylor with money hoping to specifically fund something that is not considered a current priority, Taylor can refuse that money. This has been done before, Falder said.
Nonetheless, Taylor does try to steward donors' visions well when they are passionate about a specific thing. They try to work together with the benefactor to see what they can come up with, similar to the process for the Bond-Servant Plaza.
“So we take care of the priorities,” Falder said. “(But) we also try to do things like, even if they've given us flexibility, we still want to honor the interests of the people who gave the money.”
Ultimately, it is important for people to know that donors give to the university because they believe in its students and mission, Falder said. There are almost two million non-profits in the U.S. these donors could be giving their money to, but they choose to invest it in Taylor for a reason.
Additionally, donors often see the giving of their money as an act of obedience to the Lord, he said.
“We're not entitled to a single penny of that,” Falder said. “It's all God's provision and people being generous. They're not obligated to give us money. They give us money because they believe in what we're doing.”
