In 1993, our lifetime Trustee, Fred Hamilton, and his peers on the Board foresaw the need to give Graland the gift of financial stability in perpetuity. They understood the importance of diversifying Graland’s income streams and buffering against severe tuition or annual fund increases. Thus, they created a separate 501(c)3, the Graland Foundation, whose sole purpose is to support Graland Country Day School. The Graland Foundation is overseen by its own Trustees, all former Graland Country Day School board members, along with the current President of the Board and chair of the finance committee.

This early leadership group funded the original endowment with $8.6 million from previous Graland investments and other contributions. The school undertook a financial aid endowment drive again in 2004, infusing an additional $3.6 million to the corpus.

While many might think that endowments are just for larger universities and hospitals, our independent school peers have long understood the critical role for this type of income in a school setting. Nonprofit best practices recommend that an organization’s endowment be three times the annual operations budget.

When a gift is made to the endowment, not only does it return critical funds to the operating budget in perpetuity, but it also increases the school’s “buying power” over time with proper investment management. For example, a gift of $1,000 dollars today grows at 10 percent a year. In 10 years, that investment has given the school $580 and has also increased in its own size to $1,620.