Raise We Our Voices 2016 - 2018

In 1966, St. Anne's School launched its first major fundraising campaign: "The Individual: Our Basic Concern.” We have never wavered from this commitment – our students and teachers are the heart and soul of this School. We invest in their hopes, dreams, and talents. It is this commitment that inspired the 2016 - 2018 Raise We Our Voices campaign.

Launched during the final phase of the 2011 - 2016 Strategic Plan, Raise We Our Voices was a $10 million campaign to make a St. Anne’s-Belfield education more accessible to every deserving student and to preserve the quality and vitality of the classroom experience. With your help, we opened even more opportunities for our current students and teachers and those who will follow, allowing all to develop their gifts and find their voices in this exceptional School.

Access

WE BELIEVE THAT EVERY TALENTED AND DESERVING STUDENT INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR COMMUNITY SHOULD BE ABLE TO ATTEND REGARDLESS OF THEIR FAMILY’S FINANCIAL MEANS.

Our paramount challenge is to continue to fund access to our educational program for the many talented and qualified students who require financial assistance to attend St. Anne’s-Belfield School. Delivering an exemplary 21st century education that prepares citizens to thrive and lead requires a whole community of thought and backgrounds; and it requires a peer group that is talented, broad thinking and representative of the world our children will encounter and help shape. St. Anne’s-Belfield is already a leader nationally among independent schools by providing over $5 million in tuition assistance to nearly 40% of students (as compared to the 23% median for NAIS member schools). However, to ensure that our School continues to attract the highest quality students and moves further toward a need-blind, increasingly selective admission program, our financial aid model needs to be sustainable. Currently, funds to support financial aid largely come from tuition revenue and our Annual Fund, placing a huge strain on operating funds that also support many other facets of the School. As a result, we cannot meet the overall financial needs of some of our best applicants.

We must continue to attract the most qualified and enthusiastic students to join our School community.

We must ensure access to our educational programs for those students who demonstrate need.

We must maintain the size of our current student body and the scale of programs that come along with it.

We must maintain a learning environment enriched by outstanding students from all backgrounds, not only as an education essential – to learn alongside a diversity of talented peers – but also an essential preparation for life in an interconnected society, in which diversity of thought is necessary for success.

We will ensure access by strengthening our endowed funds and supporting tuition assistance to the extent that earnings from these funds will guarantee that qualified students can attend, regardless of ability to pay. We will also bolster our current funding to support annual need-based scholarships for talented students.

Learn more about Access.

Teaching Excellence

OUR TEACHERS DO MORE THAN JUST TEACH. TEACHERS AT ST. ANNE’S-BELFIELD SCHOOL EXCEL IN THEIR CRAFT AND DARE TO INSPIRE.

Our second major challenge is to preserve teaching excellence and innovation. The School’s largest investment is supporting faculty. The costs to hire and retain the most qualified people requires more from the School each year. With primary support for faculty coming from annual operating funds through tuition revenue and our Annual Fund, we will increasingly rely on endowment and other revenue to supplement these expenses. This is especially critical for our School, which has always been defined by the power of the student-teacher relationship, the low student:teacher ratio and the very best, most dedicated teachers anywhere. For many alumni, families, and current students, this characteristic is the hallmark of the St. Anne’s-Belfield School experience.

Demands on the teaching profession are only increasing, and the School is constantly assessing how to innovate, change, and evolve.

We must be ahead of the curve in the design of curricular and co-curricular programs and the delivery of those programs both on- and off-campus.

We must continue to attract and retain the very best teachers.

We must maintain our commitment to professional development, which allows our teachers to learn and grow each year, from the standard-setting Learn to Learn program on our own campus to myriad experiences nationally and internationally.

We must continue to equip teachers with appropriate tools and learning spaces to succeed and empower them to create new curricula, such as our Computer Science Initiative and Humanities program.

We will ensure teaching excellence by building our endowment and strengthening current use funds, providing ready resources for recruiting outstanding educators, enabling innovative curricula and state-of-the-art learning facilities, and equipping teachers with needed professional development opportunities, tools, and technology to excel in their craft.

Learn more about Teaching Excellence.