The success of the University's comprehensive fundraising campaign, Aspire: A Plan for Princeton, in securing a strong future for Princeton depends on the full involvement of all its alumni.

Connect: A Black Alumni Leadership Initiative grew out of the overwhelming desire of black alumni to create a focused fundraising effort, which was expressed at the 2006 campus conference known as Coming Back and Looking Forward.

This effort was subsequently launched by a group of current and former black trustees led by co-chairs Dennis Brownlee ’74 and Brent Henry ’69. Fourteen Princeton alumni compose the steering committee that has been charged with setting the strategy for the initiative and overseeing its implementation in the final three years of the Aspire campaign.

The Connect initiative, which was publicly announced at a 2009 conference called Coming Back and Moving Forward, has the following goals:

• Increase cumulative participation by black alumni in the Aspire campaign to 65%
• Raise $5 million for Aspire campaign priorities
• Recruit volunteers from within the black alumni community to serve within the Aspire campaign