Corporate & Foundation Relations

Picture of rowers, Wellesley tower, Lake Waban, autumn.

Corporate and Foundation Relations

The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) pursues institutional grants to support Wellesley's key priorities and initiatives. The CFR team helps Wellesley develop and strengthen partnerships with foundations, corporations, and agencies that share our interest in advancing education, assisting them in fulfilling their missions while advancing the goals of the College. We are grateful to our grantors for helping Wellesley remain bold, creative, and innovative.

To learn more, email Jennifer Banks, director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, at jb121@wellesley.edu.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation selected Wellesley as a 2021 Beckman Scholars Program award recipient. The program supports undergraduate student research in the sciences.

Wellesley is a longtime partner of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This program seeks to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who complete Ph.D.s and pursue careers in academia.

Wellesley received a three-year grant of $216,000 from the Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM, a program of the Henry Luce Foundation. The grant will support 30 Clare Boothe Luce undergraduate research awards and create mentored cohorts of students as they complete their Wellesley science degrees and go on to graduate school and careers in STEM.

Wellesley received a $1 million award to support inclusive excellence from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. HHMI is a leading philanthropic organization focused on support for scientists and science education; the grants are part of its highly selective Inclusive Excellence Initiative, which aims to catalyze schools’ efforts to engage all students in science—regardless of background, including underrepresented ethnic minorities and first‐generation college students.

Student, easel, painting, lead-paned windows, sunlight. Quote from Alumnae Ophelia Dahl about optimism.

Support the healers of tomorrow with your gift today.

Ophelia Dahl ’94 is an ardent advocate for equitable health care for the poor. She is a co-founder and former executive director (2001-2015) of the Boston nonprofit Partners In Health, which is dedicated to improving health care systems among poor and underserved populations across the globe. She continues to chair the organization’s board of directors.