DOYLESTOWN Pa. – In the high-pressure world of educational fundraising, tiny Delaware Valley College has seemingly hit the lottery: A local philanthropic group is giving the school an estimated $30 million in property and cash.
The generous gift from the Warwick Foundation of Bucks County is large by nearly any standard. But it’s considered transformational for the suburban Philadelphia college, which was founded more than a century ago as a farm school for immigrant youths and is now on track to become a full-fledged university.
The donation announced in September includes a 400-acre farm worth about $15 million; a $10 million endowment to care for the land; and $5 million to support the college’s long-term academic vision.
Especially in a struggling economy, the gift represents a “tremendous psychological asset” that should help attract talented leaders and educators, school President Joseph Brosnan said. It will also provide years of financial stability to the tuition-dependent school and help officials better publicize its many non-agricultural offerings, he said.
“We have been known as that little old farm school in Doylestown,” Brosnan said. “(People) haven’t been able to see the other programs.”
Warwick Foundation President Betsy Gemmill was already a fan of Delaware Valley when negotiations for the gift began about two years ago. Her father had once been chairman of the board at the school, which is about 10 miles from the family’s farm in Warwick Township.
Gemmill said Brosnan sealed the deal with an ambitious agenda to add graduate programs and attain university status while retaining the school’s agricultural heritage. The donation essentially doubles the institution’s $16 million endowment and its land holdings.
