ARCE is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $1 million matching grant from the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation of Southfield, Michigan. The grant is specifically meant to strengthen ARCE’s operating endowment and build institutional capacity. The award is the largest ever received by ARCE from the private sector, and is the first such grant to be awarded as a result of the ARCE Endowment Campaign initiated in 2007.

Among the Fisher Foundation’s many humanitarian and cultural interests is a significant focus on “supporting education, promoting the arts and enhancing the discovery, documentation and preservation of ancient and modern cultures,” according to the Foundation’s website. ARCE board member Marjorie Fisher, trustee and daughter of founders Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher, was central to bringing ARCE and the Foundation together in support of these common goals.

“Together we were able to successfully convey the value that ARCE’s ongoing financial stability will bring to the preservation and celebration of Egypt’s—and the world’s—cultural heritage,” said ARCE Director Gerry Scott. “Our sincerest thanks to Marjorie Fisher and the Trustees of the Fisher Foundation for believing so strongly in ARCE’s mission and helping us take the first enormous step in strengthening and solidifying our institutional capacity.”

As a matching grant, the $1 million will be paid out over five years on the condition that ARCE secures matching private support for the operating endowment during that same time period, for an additional $1 million. Especially with the uncertainty of future government funding, the new emphasis on private operating endowment funding is essential to ARCE's ongoing financial stability.

Now with a generous matching grant from the Fisher Foundation, the ARCE Endowment Campaign will help to ensure ARCE's ability to plan for the long-term while remaining focused on scholarship, documentation, training, and conservation. For information on how you can help ARCE raise $5 million by 2012, please visit the Contributions page.