STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
The Chair
Bill Saunderson, Chair,
Strength to Strength Campaign
Photography: Geoff George
“Trinity is a small facility in a big university now – and the small-college tradition is more important today than ever."
FEBRUARY 2008 – It’s been more than 50 years since Bill Saunderson ’56 arrived as a fresh-faced youth at Trinity. Since graduating, he has been a chartered accountant with Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young), co-founder of Sceptre Investment Counsel Limited, and later, a top Tory political strategist both federally and provincially. Yet the memory of his university days remains fresh – especially now that he is chairing Trinity’s $15-million Strength to Strength Endowment Campaign.
“There was a life within that college – and I think there still is,” Saunderson says of his time at Trinity. “My father never had a chance to go to university. He went right into law school after serving in the First World War. But he would visit me at Trinity and enjoyed the atmosphere. He loved the idea of college life.”
As did his son – which helps explain Saunderson’s current role.
Saunderson’s pitch focuses on the importance of preserving the intimacy and human scale of the College – “Trinity is a small facility in a big university now,” he says – and on the excellence of Trinity’s graduates, including a significant number, given its small size, of Rhodes Scholars and others who have distinguished themselves in their fields. But excellence costs money, and the small-college tradition needs to be safeguarded against an environment where present demands take precedence over future opportunities.
The reality is that public funding covers only part of what the College does. Tuition fees and government grants are paid to the University of Toronto, which in turn provides the College with an annual operating grant. The grant, however, does not finance such fundamentals as the Provost, the academic dons, the music in the Chapel, or even the maintenance of the College’s heritage architecture – the fundamentals that make Trinity what it is. These have always been supported by the College’s fundraising efforts. The purpose of the Strength to Strength Campaign is to enhance the College’s financial position so it can continue to flourish. It’s about investing in excellence.
The current campaign will raise $15 million to endow student scholarships (where possible, renewable for a student’s full undergraduate career), fund the academic dons who advise and mentor resident and non-resident students, generate funds to support the position of the Provost, provide enrichment for the College’s academic programs, and pay for improvements to Trinity’s cherished buildings and grounds.
Donations may be designated to any of the campaign’s priorities, or be undesignated. Each method is equally critical. As of the end of January 2008, the campaign had raised $12.5 million, with the campaign’s $1.4-million cost covered by gifts from the Campaign Cabinet, so that, as Saunderson says, “when somebody gives, they know all they give goes to the benefit of the College long-term.”
In appealing to Trinity grads, Saunderson speaks of the process as a “chance to give back…. Think of what Trinity College has done for you…the friends you have from your days there…the values you learned.” Big or small, every contribution counts.
– John Lownsbrough
The Strength to Strength Campaign priorities represent a permanent and lasting investment in Trinity’s future.
Design by Fresh Art & Design, Toronto
