In the recently concluded fiscal year, Yale Divinity School donors contributed a record-breaking $700,260 to the YDS Annual Fund. Nearly 1,500 alums and friends of the school donated, demonstrating their commitment to supporting divinity students and their work in the world.
Every dollar donated to the YDS Annual Fund directly supports students’ financial aid packages. These include full-tuition scholarships and cost-of-living stipends for all students with demonstrated need, who constitute more than 90 percent of the student population.
In the roughly 12 years of Greg Sterling’s deanship, the percentage of students borrowing to pay for their YDS education has dropped by half, reaching a new low of 37 percent in 2024.
“This is tremendously helpful to our students and due entirely to the generosity of our donors,” Sterling said. “I thank those donors from the bottom of my heart.”
YDS has established a fundraising goal of $710,000 for the Annual Fund in the 2024-25 fiscal year. Success achieving the goal will enable YDS to better to respond to the growing cost of living in New Haven and help free students to pursue their callings without the burden of excessive debt.
“I am the first person in my family to receive an Ivy Leage degree, and I was able to attend YDS only because of the financial aid package offered to me,” Bryce Tapp ’22 M.A.R. said. As an Assistant Director in the Office of Alumni Engagement & Development, Tapp manages the YDS Annual Fund and wants to make sure that students today and in the future are given the same opportunity he was given because of the success of the YDS Annual Fund.
“No student,” Tapp said, “should be forced to decide between taking out a loan and attending YDS to pursue their calling.
The Divinity School’s 22 percent alumni giving participation rate in 2023-24 was second highest among Yale graduate and professional schools.