THANK YOU FROM BANK STREET A Look at 2019-2020
A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY September, 2020
Dear Bank Street Friends, We often measure our lives in time. Bank Street is 104 years old. I’ve worked at Bank Street for 19 months. And my colleagues and I have worked from our homes for 110 days. The Development and Alumni Relations team had a successful fundraising year up until, and despite of, the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the generosity of all of you and in partnership with our colleagues, we raised nearly $20 million to support Bank Street’s work in education, both here at 112th Street and nationally. We successfully concluded our five-year, comprehensive Centennial Campaign at $66 million, well over our goal. In March, we changed course over a weekend, and began working from home. We looked for silver linings and found them: alumni and parents eager to connect; Trustees, parents, and alumni who gave generously to meet the acute needs of our changed reality; and a national audience who enthusiastically engaged in our virtual events. Yet, the stark racial inequities of the pandemic, the unfair differences in the quality of children’s virtual learning experiences, and the reminders of brutality in our policing and justice system demand that each of us, in our professional capacities, ensures Bank Street’s legacy of social justice meets our present needs. I am optimistic about the year ahead. As a community, we have shown that when we lead with our values, we can overcome great challenges. As we take the measure of these last few months, we are grateful for your friendship and support. Sincerely,
Marcela Hahn Vice President of Development
Our Annual Funds Felt the Love Because of you, our Annual Funds, Major Gifts, and Planned Giving programs were able to raise over $4 million in 2019-2020 for scholarships, programming, and other critical resources for Bank Street teachers, students, and families. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched a campaign in support of relief efforts for our students and families and received a great response from the Bank Street community. Overall, our Annual Funds saw a nearly 6 percent increase over fiscal year 2019. We received more gifts to the Graduate School Annual Fund and saw increased support from our Graduate School alumni. The dedication and passion of our GSE alumni were heartwarming and a true testament to Bank Street’s mission and vision. Despite challenges, the SFC Annual Fund finished the year at 89.7 percent of our dollar goal. This year, the average gift size increased to $1,249, with 28 donors offering substantially greater individual gifts. During the year we held two parent-led Gift Challenges, which raised over $13,000 towards our fundraising goal. Overall, our End-of-Year Campaign raised over $33,000. We are thankful for the generosity of SFC parents, alumni, and former parents and look forward to engaging with you again this year. We would like to thank both David Beach and Susanna Cole for leading the Annual Fund Committee during these extraordinary times, and we look forward to working with Susanna Cole, Lindsay Pitzer, and Ann Ritter as our newest Annual Fund Co-Chairs in the upcoming year.
Major Donors Invested in Bank Street’s Future Bank Street’s major donors—our longstanding, generous friends and those new to the fold—showed their continued dedication and support of our programs. Overall, our major gifts revenue increased over 54 percent last year, despite the economic hardships we faced as a city and nation. Our donors invested in programs to address the new needs of the educational community and strengthened our enduring commitment to equity in education via scholarship and financial aid support. Alumni of the Graduate School funded scholarships for math education and laid the groundwork for a policy fellows program to ensure that those charged with developing early education policies are immersed in Bank Street’s teaching approach. Two new donors supported the new policy work taking place in the Education Center to improve the quality of infant/ toddler education. In the School For Children, parents past and present supported a wide range of scholarship opportunities for teachers and students, while those that could made deep investments in our financial aid resources for the 2020-2021 school year. We also made great strides on our STEAM initiative, closing the year with $750,000 in resources dedicated to funding the materials, faculty, and curriculum Bank Street will need to effectively teach science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics now and in the years to come.
Foundation Partnerships Fueled Our Impact In recent years, Bank Street and particularly our Education Center has significantly grown its capacity for foundation partnerships, and 2019-2020 was no exception. Early in the fiscal year, the School Systems Partnerships & Programs team was awarded $11.2 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue their work with Yonkers Public Schools. The new funding enables Bank Street to continue its collaboration with 20 schools to help more of the city’s Black, Latinx, and lowincome students complete eighth-grade math and stay on track to earn their high school diplomas. With support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), our Education Center launched the Birth-toThree Policy Initiative with an influential White Paper and associated essays that outlined the critical steps needed to redesign the care and education of our nation’s youngest children. This groundbreaking initiative spurred new streams of funding and the opportunity to advise policymakers at city, state, and national levels. A grant of $225,000 from the Van Ameringen Foundation enabled the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice (ERP) to launch a three-year project in five schools in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. The program will build a community of emotionally responsive practitioners, creating a continuity of approach as students age through the school system.
Other highlights include: • The Ford and Annie E. Casey Foundations supported the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), now housed at Bank Street. • The Charles Hayden Foundation renewed its support for the Liberty LEADS college preparation program. • The Graduate School’s program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) was awarded a grant from the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, enabling us to offer scholarships for a new cohort of graduate students this fall.
The Bank Street Community Came Together With Joy and Purpose Bank Street buzzed with several events from the Graduate School of Education and School for Children. We held a lively reception featuring ceramic art by a beloved alumnus and retired faculty member, Sal Vascellaro. BSCAA’s Social Justice Committee symposium entitled “Desegregating NYC Public Schools” was also well-attended. Before the stay-at-home mandate, GSE alumni gathered for intimate networking nights called “Across the Bridges” at local restaurants in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan. Through BSCAA, we created a new affinity group called the Alumni Tutoring Network in response to ongoing inquiries from families looking for additional support for their students. The Alumni of Color yearly event became a virtual conversation on “Black Joy and Black Pain: A Critical Meditation for Educators”, led by BSCAA President Erica Davis and faculty member Pam Jones, along with live music and intimate breakout groups. Our first virtual BSCAA Quarterly Meeting drew alumni from across the country and featured Takiema Bunche-Smith, GSE ’97, Executive Director, Center on Culture, Race and Equity, in a conversation about Coping Methods and Remaining Productive During the Pandemic. The School for Children parent community held a number of engaging events this year. Their Flashback Friday Trivia Night and Dance Party featured over 15 teams who dressed up to compete in a trivia competition and raised over $32,000 in one evening. Thank you to Nicole Kahn and the Flashback Friday Committee for your help with this event and congratulations to the winning teams: The After School Specials, Breakin Badly, Donna Martin Graduates, and Solid Gold, who all finished with a perfect score! Thank you again to everyone who donated and participated in the Bank Street Benefit, which raised over $135,000. And a huge thank you to Mignon Moore and Lindsay Pitzer, Co-Chairs of the Bank Street Benefit. We are very grateful to all those who were able to attend and donate. While we are physically apart for the time being, never before has the importance of remaining socially connected become more clear. As a result, the School for Children created “Bank Street Connects: Our Virtual Gathering Place.” Bank Street Connects brings current families, new families, alumni, and sometimes kids together around a range of informational and recreational topics. Bank Street Connects will continue in October. Keep an eye out for some new and exciting discussions.
As our world continues to change, it is comforting to see how deeply engaged the Bank Street community remains. Your steadfast support continues to make a difference for our families, students, and the many communities with whom we work. Your contributions are what keeps Bank Street whole, and we thank each and every one of you for all you do to support our mission.