ACC Capital Campaign faces greatest challenge (Oct. 09, 2009) - ACC Capital Campaign faces greatest challenge

QUEENSBURY, NY – Adirondack Community College’s dilemma: raise $130,000 by December 1 or lose $350,000.

ACC’s solution: a $100,000 challenge gift from philanthropist and ACC alumnus J. Buckley Bryan, Jr.

In late September, ACC Capital Campaign Chair Thomas J. Ross told the college that it still had $130,000 left to raise for the J. Buckley Bryan, Jr. ACC ’87, ’94 Regional Higher Education Center.

Ross was blunt. If ACC did not raise the entire $2.5 million Capital Campaign by December 1, Detroit’s Kresge Foundation would not award ACC an additional $350,000 Challenge Grant.

Bryan, who has already committed $1.5 million to the effort, told Ross he would not allow the college to lose the Kresge grant.

In an extraordinary gesture, Bryan issued a challenge to the community: he would match every additional dollar donated to the Capital Campaign for the Regional Higher Education Center, up to $100,000.

Bryan, a successful entrepreneur, said the logic was easy. Essentially, every dollar that is donated is equal to a $5.50 donation: the initial $1 donation, $1 from Bryan, and $3.50 from the Kresge Foundation. “The return on investment was huge,” he said. “I am so excited about this, I can’t tell you,” Bryan said. “We are so close to the final moments, I can feel it. Once we complete this thing, we’ll have a party the likes of which will not be seen around here for a long, long time.”

Ross said that Bryan had stepped up to the plate with a challenge and asked the community to respond.

Bryan’s heart has been with ACC for decades. He had earned two degrees from ACC – a business degree in 1987 and a psychology degree in 1994 – and, in addition, earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from SUNY Plattsburgh on the ACC campus.

Just as Bryan did, students today can also take their Associate degrees at ACC, then stay on campus for upper level degrees offered in the new Regional Higher Education Center by SUNY Plattsburgh, Empire State College and Paul Smith’s College.

Donations can be mailed to:
The Buck Bryan Challenge
Adirondack Community College Foundation
640 Bay Road
Queensbury, NY 12804

For more information, please contact Joseph Cutshall-King, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, at 743-2243.