Donors issue Virginia seminary gift challenge

RICHMOND, Va. — Two Virginia Baptist benefactors have offered a large matching-gift challenge to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR).

Seminary officials announced Jan. 19 that Louise and Harwood Cochrane had issued a $3 million challenge to their fellow BTSR supporters. As part of the challenge, the Cochranes will match all gifts, up to $3 million, given between now and July 31, 2007, to the seminary’s Building Our Future … Together campaign.

The campaign, designed to expand the seminary’s facilities and endowment for the future, has an overall goal of raising $19 million. According to seminary spokesman Nathan Taylor, the Cochranes’ matching gifts will be earmarked for renovating a dormitory building with an eye to creating more of a residential-campus community.

For decades, the Cochranes have been significant donors to Baptists, including the more than 440 acres of land near Richmond on which the organization then known as the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board established its Missionary Learning Center.