In the fall of 2007, the trustees of The George School, a Quaker school in Newton, Pennsylvania, received an exciting phone call. An alumna was making a $128.5 million gift to the school’s already substantial ($75 million) endowment. With a total endowment well over $200 million, The George School has caused many in the independent school world, especially those in the Quaker independent school community to stand up and take notice.
Why is this gift so significant to the larger Quaker independent school community and particularly Brooklyn Friends? Building an endowment is a strategic priority of the Brooklyn Friends Board of Trustees. For 140 years, Brooklyn Friends has provided an excellent academic education for our students. Like other Friends' schools, our program has always centered around values-based Quaker principles. While educating the mind, we are also educating the hearts of our students.
A BROOKLYN FRIENDS SCHOOL PRIORITY
This philosophy continues to be a priority for Brooklyn Friends, but we are living in a world where the physical and tangible things that we need and want for the education of our children are increasingly expensive. Our annual budget is supplemented every year by contributions to the Brooklyn Friends Fund by our families, alums and friends.
While endowment income will never replace annual giving, it will enhance the school’s financial position by providing much needed additional and permanent income that will secure our future.
How can an endowment help and how does it work? Leaving the principal untouched, a school is able to supplement its operating costs with the interest from a strategically invested endowment. In the extreme example of The George School, the interest they will have to spend from their endowment, each and every year, may be as much as $10,000,000. For Brooklyn Friends, with even a significantly more modest endowment of $10,000,000, the additional yearly income could be $500,000. With an annual operating budget around $13,500,000, another half million dollars would allow Brooklyn Friends to provide more competitive faculty compensation, increase financial aid to our families, and provide enhanced resources in the classroom.
By supporting the endowment at Brooklyn Friends, donors are making a difference in our school, inspiring our community, strengthening the institution and transforming what our future will be.
Please let us know if you have included Brooklyn Friends School in your estate plans or have named BFS as a beneficiary of your will. The 1867 Society, our first planned giving society, was launched this fall, to encourage bequests to Brooklyn Friends and to recognize individuals who have included BFS in their estate plans. Please contact
Karen Edelman, Director of Development, (718) 852-1029 x206.