Scholarship Encourages Reciprocal Giving

April 1, 2010

A new $500,000 endowed-scholarship fund will not only make Dickinson more affordable for current students but inspire its recipients to support future scholars. The Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation grant, which will assist one or two students from central Pennsylvania each year, asks recipients for a commitment to give back to the fund if they have the means to do so in the future.

“Given the rising cost of higher education and the college’s commitment to access, scholarship giving will continue to be a priority for the college,” says Don Hasseltine, vice president for college advancement. “It’s important for us to create a culture of giving to support the next generation of Dickin-sonians, and that’s exactly what this grant does.”

In the last year alone the need for financial-aid and scholarship support among Dickinson students increased by more than 10 percent, bringing the college’s annual investment in financial aid to more than $32 million. During the next six years, that investment is expected to rise by nearly $10 million, which means the funding provided by the Stabler Foundation grant and any future gifts it helps generate will be increasingly important to the college.

“These scholarships not only help individual students afford Dickinson, but they also enable students from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds to attend,” says Stephanie Balmer, vice president for enrollment and communications and dean of admissions. “This is a benefit for all students, given the diversity of experience that it brings to our campus.”

Donald Stabler, who launched a successful central Pennsylvania construction and real-estate development company in 1950 and guided it until his death in 1997, established the Stabler Foundation with his wife Dorothy in 1966 to support private educational institutions, nonprofits and hospitals. Asking scholarship recipients to promise to give back to their colleges is a common feature of the foundation’s scholarships.

However, according to language in the grant conditions, Stabler’s intent was not that recipients feel they need to pay back a “debt” but rather that they come to understand the importance of supporting education through philanthropy.

“I am offering them an opportunity to give someone else an education, and I believe they will have a deep inward satisfaction [from that],” Stabler wrote in the scholarship’s statement of beliefs, which will be presented to each recipient. “If financial conditions warrant, the seed will have been planted, and they will want to start their own funds some day.”