The Nilsen Gift
Chatham Hall Receives Largest Gift in History of Girls’ Schools.
Chatham Hall has received a $31 million gift from the estate of alumna Elizabeth Beckwith Nilsen, Class of 1931. This is the largest single gift to any girls’ independent school.
According to Dr. Gary Fountain, Rector and Head of Chatham Hall, “Mrs. Nilsen’s gift is transformational for the School. What remarkable generosity, and what a powerful statement about women supporting girls’ education. Mrs. Nilsen’s generosity is a head of school’s dream.”
Mrs. Nilsen directed that her gift be placed into an unrestricted endowment fund. Her gift came to Chatham Hall following the death of Mrs. Nilsen’s husband, Robert A. Nilsen, in March 2009. Mrs. Nilsen, who predeceased her husband, died in October 2006.
“My fellow Board members and I are humbled by Mrs. Nilsen’s generosity. Given these challenging economic times, when all schools are guarding their bottom line and cautiously planning for the future, this gift comes to Chatham Hall, as it would to any school, as a miracle, and also as an affirmation of the work we do every day educating girls,” said Dora Thomas, Chair of the Chatham Hall Board of Trustees. “Through judicious planning, we will honor Mrs. Nilsen in a way that acknowledges how she has honored us by expanding the basis for a secure and dynamic future for Chatham Hall.”
Mrs. Nilsen’s gift comes in the final year of Chatham Hall’s current Capital Campaign, during which its alumnae and supporters have already surpassed a goal of $25 million with pledges and contributions of $26.3 million. Mrs. Nilsen’s gift builds the success of this Campaign to more than $57 million, with several months remaining in the drive. Her gift will increase the School’s general endowment to $51 million.
“Elizabeth Nilsen was an unpretentious, private person who wanted no attention focused on herself or her family through this gift,” commented Fountain, who is in his seventh year as head of the School. “I knew her, as did my immediate predecessors, only through correspondence and telephone conversations, since illness made it difficult for her to have visitors in the later years of her life. Mrs. Nilsen made it clear to me that Chatham Hall, in her words, ‘was the best thing that ever happened to me.’ The School community deeply influenced her and convinced her of the lasting importance of all-girls schools.”
