Announcing the Bezos Match

Written By Samuel Adams

Dear Friends of Come to Believe,

Thank you for the many emails and messages of congratulations to CTB last week when we announced that Butler University and the College of Mt. St. Vincent were replicating our two-year college model.

One of those emails came from Mike Bezos. “This is great news, Father,” Mike wrote.

Mike has more great news for CTB.

Mike and his wife Jackie, like many of you, have been watching CTB grow and waiting for new colleges to be announced. With Butler and the College of Mt. St. Vincent’s announcements, the Bezoses wish to invest in CTB.

Mike and Jackie Bezos are willing to invest $500,000 in CTB—if the CTB community can match.

What an investment! With funds from Mike and Jackie Bezos and you, we can:

  • Provide seed funding for another university that we believe will successfully replicate our model.

  • Continue to provide support and resources to Butler and Mt. St. Vincent as they prepare to enroll their inaugural classes.

  • Support other universities interested in exploring our model as they consider replication on their campuses.

Three years ago, when we launched CTB, Mike Bezos wrote the following to me: “There is obviously a hunger out there for your idea of colleges available to all.” Mike nailed it. That hunger is evident in Indianapolis and the Bronx. It is evident in our current design grant cohort of institutions exploring the CTB model. And it is evident in each of you.

Mike concluded that message to me with a call to action: “Let’s get those colleges built.” With CTB’s support, Butler and Mt. St. Vincent are building new colleges. But there are more colleges to be built. To help us meet Mike and Jackie’s $500,000 match, you can:

Mike and Jackie have graciously given us until the end of 2023 to meet their challenge. However, I am meeting with a colleague of theirs on November 29th. I’d love to deliver the good news on that date: “We’ve met the match.”

Thank you for your excitement about Come to Believe. Thank you for your wish for more CTB colleges for more students who are too often left out of the higher ed landscape. Thank you for joining Mike and Jackie Bezos by investing in CTB so that together, we can raise $1,000,000 to build more colleges.

God's blessings,

Steve Katsouros, SJ
President, Come to Believe Foundation
New York, NY 10150

Samuel Adams
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