Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Bryn Mawr College, the highly rated liberal arts educational for women in Pennsylvania, received a donation of $15 million from the estate of Isabel Hamilton Benham. A member of the Bryn Mawr Class of 1931, Benham broke many gender barriers during a long career on Wall Street. She was the first woman on Wall Street to specialize in the railroad industry and was among the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Benham died in 2013 at the age of 103.

Smith College, the well-regarded liberal arts college for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, received an anonymous $10 million gift from a member of the Class of 1986. The gift will be used to bolster an endowed fund for student scholarships.

Beth Raffeld, vice president for development at Smith College, stated that “there is nothing more powerful than philanthropy by women for women, and this donor’s generosity is a vivid example.” Raffeld joined the staff at Smith College in 2013 after serving as executive director of philanthropic partnerships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.