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Annual Reports: 2000: Gifts, Grants, and Pledges
 For the third consecutive year, the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation set records for fund-raising. The $46.8 million
in total gifts and grants represented a remarkable 44 percent
increase over 1999 and was the most successful year for total
gifts since Colonial Williamsburg began its formal fund-raising
program in 1976. At year’s end, the Campaign for Colonial
Williamsburg total reached $231.4 million.
Gifts to the Annual Fund totaled a record $9.6 million,
surpassing by more than 15 percent 1999’s previous
record of $8.3 million. The number of donors exceeded
87,000, a 9 percent increase over the previous high of
slightly less than 80,000 in 1999. More than 21,000 were
new donors to the Foundation.
William and Gretchen Kimball of Belvedere, California, donated
$15 million to support the Foundation’s youth education
and educational outreach programs, one of the largest gifts
ever received by the Foundation. The William and Gretchen
Kimball Young Patriots Fund provides endowment support for
three key programs: the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute,
Colonial Williamsburg’s Electronic Field Trips, and youth
educational activities, including the Fife and Drum Corps
and Junior Interpreters program.
A gift totaling $1.5 million from the Grainger Foundation
of Lake Forest, Illinois, and David and Juli Grainger
of Winnetka, Illinois, created an endowed chair to be
known as the Juli Grainger Director of Museums chair.
The Graingers, donors to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Folk Art Museum and to the publication of The Kingdoms
of Edward Hicks catalog written by Carolyn Weekley, director
of museums, wished to honor Ms. Weekley’s scholarship
and leadership; she is the first holder of the endowed
position.
A special holiday exhibition at the Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, “Toy Trains
from the Carstens Collection,” opened in November
2000, showcasing the private toy train collection of long-time
Colonial Williamsburg friends Phyllis and Harold Carstens.
The exhibition was supported in part by gifts from Joyce
and Nick Codispoti of New Jersey and from Target Stores.
By year’s end, work on the two-story Peyton Randolph
Kitchen by carpenters and other historic tradesmen neared
completion. Reconstruction of the two-story kitchen
was funded by Carole Davis Crocker of Lake City, Florida.
In December, Ms. Crocker and members of her family joined
President and Mrs. Colin Campbell, tradesmen, and others
for a special program at the Peyton Randolph property
in recognition of her generosity.
Work continued in 2000 on the restoration
of the Williamsburg Theatre, to be renamed the Kimball
Theatre in honor of William and Gretchen Kimball and
their generous 1999 gift. In November 2000, the Gladys
and Franklin W. Clark Foundation of Williamsburg made
a gift of $360,000 for equipment and furnishings of
a special screening room in the theater. The restored
Kimball Theatre, a core component of Colonial Williamsburg’s
partnership with the College of William and Mary, is
scheduled to open in September 2001 and will offer Colonial Williamsburg evening programs,
year-round arts films, live College of William and Mary performing
arts events, community lectures, and concerts.
In 2000, two groups of Raleigh Tavern Society members toured
England and Scotland aboard the elegant Royal Scotsman train.
Colonial Williamsburg acknowledges donors at various giving
levels. The Duke of Gloucester Society recognizes annual unrestricted
gifts of $100. The Capitol Society is for donors making gifts
of $250 and above. The Assembly recognizes gifts of $500 or
more. The Foundation’s three major donor societies are
the Colonial Williamsburg Burgesses, the Colonial Williamsburg
Associates, and the Raleigh Tavern Society, for unrestricted
annual gifts of $1,000, $2,500, and $5,000, respectively.
Colonial Williamsburg established a new donor group in 2000
called the Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections to
support acquisitions for the Foundation’s collections
of art and antiques. Annual membership includes donors who
make a gift of cash or securities valued at $1,000 or more,
or donate an object appraised at $5,000 or more during a given
year.
Thirty of the new society’s sixty households participated
in the group’s first gathering September 15 and 16, 2000.
Additions to Colonial Williamsburg collections purchased with
new members’ funds in 2000 included a woman’s gown,
three musical instruments, a needlework picture, and several
pieces of silver.
When visiting the Historic Area, donors of $100 or more take
pleasure in the gracious ambience of the St. George Tucker
House, Colonial Williamsburg’s donor reception center.
The staff of eighty volunteers welcomed almost 13,000 donors
to the Tucker House in 2000. There, visitors relax and enjoy
light refreshments and occasional special programs.
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