May 16, 2014

Foundations, corporations assist key College needs with major gifts

The Angell Foundation logoBeneficiaries include summer bridge program

Acute priorities — including financial aid for deserving students, infrastructure needs, and faculty and student scholarship — are reflected in a series of charitable gifts and commitments from foundations and corporations to Providence College.

Led by a record $3.25 million commitment from The Angell Foundation of Los Angeles, Calif., foundation and corporation commitments will exceed $5 million this year.

The Angell Foundation, which actually made two gifts to the College, is named for Emmy Award-winning producer and writer David Angell ’69 and his wife, Lynn, who were killed on September 11, 2001. The foundation has an extensive record of support to the College, with the $3.25 million gift being its largest ever, topping a pledge of $2 million in 2004 for the Smith Center for the Arts.

The $3.25 million gift — made in recognition of the College’s centennial in 2017 — will acknowledge the Angells’ passion for providing access to college for students in need. It likely will be used to support the David and Lynn Angell Scholarship Fund. The fund awards grants based on financial need to the most deserving students.

The second Angell Foundation gift is a $169,875 grant for a new summer bridge program, Friar Foundations. The program, which begins in July, aims to ease the transition from high school to college. Approximately 30 freshmen will participate in Friar Foundations, which will last five weeks and will address two fundamental transition issues: academic responsibility and social assimilation. 

Foundations and corporations have stepped up to support PC in other ways:

  • A first-time grant of $100,000 from The Gladys Brooks Foundation will endow the Rev. Cornelius P. Forster, O.P. Making History Series. The annual series consists of four fall faculty lectures, a guest speaker, and a spring conference featuring undergraduate and graduate students’ research presentations.
  • For the third consecutive year, the Charles & Winifred Weber Foundation contributed a gift of $100,000 to the PC Fund, which addresses the College’s most immediate and compelling needs.
  • The Coca-Cola Corporation, a longtime PC partner, gave another $50,000 contribution to its scholarship fund, which supports students with financial need and academic merit. On average, two students receive awards each year.
  • Barnes & Noble College Booksellers contributed $43,000 to the Barnes & Noble Scholarship Fund in Memory of Thomas Rapoza ’82. Established in 1992, the fund supports minority students and has grown to a market value of more than $714,000.