Stiller Foundation donates $1 million to college program

The Single Parents Program at Champlain College in Burlington has received a $1 million gift from Bob and Christine Stiller through the Stiller Family Foundation to specifically offset child care costs for single-parent students.

The gift to Champlain was announced at a dinner honoring retiring President David F. Finney. The gift will be made to the college over the next four years.

Incoming President Donald J. Laackman said, “This gift from the Stillers is a wonderful honor for Dave Finney and yet another demonstration of the generosity of the Stiller family to our students and the college.”

The foundation is led by Bob and Christine Stiller and their children Jules, David and Christian. It is the culmination of Bob’s and Christine’s philanthropic work spanning many decades, and a continuation of many of the ideas that made Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the company Bob founded, one of America’s best places to work and most highly regarded for corporate social responsibility.

Champlain’s Single Parents Program is one of the college’s longest-standing programs, and “one of only 11 such programs across the country,” said Carol Moran-Brown, the program director.

The program has changed many lives, she said, by helping single parents attend school full-time, and pursue a career-focused education. Services range from meeting daily needs to dealing with unforeseen emergencies.

The Stiller Family Foundation also pledged to provide matching funds to buy computers for single-parent students. Each computer, with software, costs about $725. For every donation of $725 by June 30, the Stiller Family Foundation promised to match it to provide an additional computer for students in the program.

“This will really help many of our students to be able to work from home and avoid having to pay for child care to come to campus to complete homework assignments on the college’s computers,” Moran-Brown said.

Support for the program is far-reaching. Last fall, a Women Supporting Women in Education benefit event raised $236,000 — for need-based scholarships and the “Save the Day” emergency fund — from 150 donors whose gifts were matched by a $100,000 challenge gift by Donna and Remo Pizzagalli.