Leadership Giving: Leaving a Lasting Impression
Leave a lasting impression
at Bentley and make a major difference in the lives of current and future students and professors. Over the years, and through a variety of leadership gift vehicles, scores of people and organizations have lent their support — and their names — to enhance the academic, social and cultural life of the university.
Supporting Academics
Named professorships
Named professorships in business and information technology help Bentley attract and retain distinguished educators and scholars. Such professorships — both endowed and “term” — may be named for donors making major gifts to establish these prominent academic positions.
Faculty appointed to these professorships provide leadership in teaching, scholarship, and curriculum and program development. Their work advances the university’s reputation for innovation and strengthens relationships with industry.
Endowed professorships are tenured positions that are established in perpetuity with gifts of $1.5 million to $3 million.
Term professorships carry appointments ranging from three to five years and are established for specified terms with gifts of $300,000 to $500,000.
Academic programs and curriculum development
Leadership in integrating information technology and business education demands a culture of incubation and continuous curriculum innovation. Major gifts for academic program and curriculum development enable our faculty to explore and create new ways of teaching and learning.
High-technology labs and classrooms
The family of specialized, technology-driven teaching labs and fully-wired classrooms at Bentley are unique in higher education.Our high-tech facilities promote hands-on learning, support continuous curriculum innovation, build bridges to industry, and help us produce the kind of technology-savvy business professionals that the best employers demand. Major financial and in-kind contributions help Bentley keep pace in a business and technology environment marked by light-speed change in software, hardware and related tools. There are several opportunities for naming high-tech facilities in honor of individuals and organizations providing major support.
Leading-edge facilities include:
Financial Trading Room — A virtual lab of world financial markets, combining state-of-the-art technology and real-time data from Reuters, Bloomberg, First Call, Bridge and other sources. Provides firsthand exposure to financial concepts such as risk management and asset valuation.
Center for Marketing Technology — “Best practices” center for studying the latest innovations in global, electronic marketing. Students learn to create online surveys, design and manage databases for strategic decision-making, manage marketing web sites, and develop products and services for e-commerce.
Design and Usability Center — Features software applications employed by technical communicators, web developers, user interface designers, and usability specialists to create user-friendly IT products and processes. Students learn to analyze user and task requirements, and design and test prototypes.
Supporting Student Life
The commitment to make a Bentley education possible for bright, hard-working students from diverse backgrounds — regardless of means — dates back to the school's founding in 1917. There are many avenues for making significant gifts to existing academic, community service, business ethics, and other need- and merit-based scholarships. In addition, individual and corporate donors of $100,000 or more may establish named endowed scholarships to exist in perpetuity.
A student center opened in 2002 in the heart of the residential section of campus, to provide a social hub for the Bentley community. The center includes a dining hall, formal and informal meeting rooms, a nondenominational Sacred Space, and offices for student organizations. Facilities within the new center, and the center itself, may be named for major donors to the building.
Residence halls
The soaring increase in applications for admission to Bentley means an overwhelming demand for on-campus housing.
In the past six years alone, the university constructed four
new residence halls; naming opportunities exist for major
donors to the new buildings and to several other residence
halls on campus.
Supporting Athletics and Recreation
Intercollegiate, intramural and recreational athletics are important elements of the Bentley experience. At the individual level, participating in athletics fosters physical and emotional wellness, teamwork and cooperation, and enthusiasm and accomplishment. Moreover, the achievements of university teams and student athletes help generate traditions, pride, community spirit, and regional and national publicity.
There are opportunities for major donors to name several outdoor athletic facilities: the football stadium, track, soccer/multipurpose field, and tennis courts. The newly renovated and expanded Dana Athletic Center offers additional naming opportunities, for fitness rooms, staff offices and more.
