Ever Brunswick: Ensuring Access & Opportunity

“Brunswick changed the trajectory of my life.”

Ensuring Access & Opportunity

The Case for Strengthened Financial Aid

EVER STRONGER, EVER BRUNSWICK

A 120th Anniversary Campaign for Our Boys

— JOSYL BARCHUE ’00

TTHE YEAR 2022 MARKS THE 120TH ANNIVERSARY of our founding. We have much to celebrate, and much to be thankful for, especially the generosity of so many individuals and families over the years that has enabled us to move from strength to greater strength. Nowhere is that more evident than in the exceptional quality of our people — our students, our faculty and staff, and our extended community of parents and alumni, whose combined efforts and resilience helped us navigate our way through the COVID-19 pandemic with limited disruption to our educational mission. Our many strengths are borne out by the continuing rise in applications across our four academic divisions. This year, applications reached an all-time high, and the number of exceptionally talented boys seeking admission confirms the perception of our excellence among independent day schools, both regionally and nationally.

And, particularly in Fairfield and Westchester counties, socioeconomic factors come increasingly to bear: Every year, more and more inquiries and application arrive from truly excellent candidates for whom financial aid would be essential. Consequently, although our annual financial-aid budget has grown steadily over the past 20 years, and our financial-aid numbers, in terms of the percentage of students receiving aid and average scholarship awards, compare favorably to those of our peers, the number of newly accepted and returning students requiring financial assistance continues to climb. Endowment designated for financial aid has not kept

pace with this growth. As a result, we increasingly fall short of meeting the demonstrated need of many students we wish to enroll — students whose achievements, character, and potential would enrich and broaden the educational experience of our entire community.

Two overarching goals compel us to action. We must ensure we remain accessible to a cross-section of families who have traditionally looked to Brunswick in seeking the very best educational experience for their sons. A second impetus is to continue to enroll students whose individual talents and interests enrich the educational experience of their classmates. The more

varied our students are, in terms of their backgrounds, the more wide-ranging the opinions and perspectives that inform and enliven classroom discussions and out-of-class conversations. As a day school, our success in creating such a vibrant educational community is directly tied to the availability of adequate financial aid to meet the demonstrated need of successful applicants.

Although we endeavor to keep our tuition below that of most other independent schools in the region, for too many families, the cost of sending one or more sons to Brunswick is increasingly out-of-reach. Unless we are able to offer adequate financial assistance to excellent applicants, we inevitably become a less socioeconomically diverse school community. And while we have made efforts to award more partial aid over the past five years, just 18 percent of our current financial-aid budget supports

middle-income families. Many middleincome applicant families reside in or nearby Greenwich, where high property values often result in inflated estimates of a family’s wealth. We can make some adjustments to such determinations, but that does not ensure we will be able to meet any additional, non-formulaic need.

And, if we are unable to offer additional partial-aid scholarships, we run the risk of creating a bifurcated enrollment, with students from either our wealthiest families or those with the least financial resources. Such an outcome would transform Brunswick into a school that neither reflects nor is representative of our community. In providing our boys with the very best education for the 21st century, we must now ensure the composition of our student body reinforces our long-standing mission of preparing our graduates more broadly for life as well as continuing achievement. This is what motivates us

in seeking a minimum of $35 million in expanded financial-aid endowment and current-use funds.

As part of our $120-million “Ever Stronger, Ever Brunswick” Campaign, which includes support for new educational and programmatic investments, such as The Brunswick Trust’s Health & Wellness Initiative, enhanced support for our faculty, as well as important facility upgrades, we will be seeking a minimum of $35 million in financial-aid resources. In so doing, we will ensure we continue to be a community defined as much by opportunity and inclusion as by excellence, character, and achievement.

Now, we seek philanthropic investment in financial aid to strengthen our offerings in these key areas:

Named Endowment Funds

Tuition revenues will always be a component of our financial-aid budget, but the more we subsidize financial aid by drawing on tuition revenues, the greater pressure we face to raise tuition, which in turn creates an increased need for assistance on the part of applicants. It also means we are less able to direct such essential unrestricted funds to provide for our faculty, maintain and improve our physical facilities, and enhance our educational programs across all academic divisions. The most effective solution is to strengthen endowment designated specifically for financial aid.

Expendable/Term Financial-Aid Gifts

We also seek an increased number of term (non-endowment, fully expendable) gifts to provide additional scholarship awards or assistance in the short term, while we continue to increase the level and number of our financial-aid endowments. Such gifts, moreover, increase our capacity to make supplemental awards during an academic year in response to a significant and unanticipated change in a family’s financial circumstances.

Full Educational $5 million Experience, Non-Tuition Expenses

To be more fully inclusive, we also seek to cover a major share of the varied costs, over and above tuition, that all families are asked to cover during a school year. These are fees and costs more rightly viewed not as peripheral, but as education-related enrichment expenses. They include the cost of textbooks and supplies, athletic uniforms and equipment, field trips, travel to and from performance venues and regional competitions, as well as special luncheons and dinners during a school year. They average more than $5,000 per year for Upper School students and slightly less for Middle School boys.

Although a number of financial-aid families are willing and able to cover some of these expenses, for many it is a significant added burden, and one beyond their means. Asking financial-aid families to absorb the full cost of such

additional expenses inevitably creates a two-tier enrollment: full-pay students who are able to enjoy all that a Brunswick education offers, and those whose full participation in school activities may be limited solely by financial considerations. Such a purely economic demarcation must be eliminated if we are to remain a fully inclusive educational community.

Program Support for Newly Enrolled Financial-Aid Students

We must also provide a support framework, including more comprehensive orientation for new students and expanded transportation options for students living at some distance from our campuses, to ensure we remain a cohesive and welcoming community, where every student is encouraged and motivated to succeed.

Experience has confirmed that newly admitted financial-aid students often find the transition to Brunswick challenging. We must do more to ease that transition and ensure we have the requisite programs and policies in place to position every student for success. Accordingly, beginning in the 2020–2021 academic year, we initiated new — and expanded existing — programs to ensure that all members of our school community feel welcomed and supported. One such initiative, effectively an “onboarding” late-summer program prior to enrollment, assists entering students in transitioning to Brunswick, attuning them to academic performance expectations, and familiarizing them with school traditions, facilities, scheduling, transportation options, and support services.

CONTRIBUTING TO THE EVER STRONGER, EVER BRUNSWICK CAMPAIGN

There are a number of giving opportunities in differing gift ranges that a donor might select. A named endowment or expendable fund can be designated for any campaign objective, whether financial aid, faculty support, new or expanded educational programs, facility enhancements, or for a purpose of special interest to a donor.

Donors can designate both endowment and term gifts for a specific group of applicants. A donor, for example, may wish to assist applicants from a specific geographic location or neighborhood, or to benefit applicants who are the sons of parents who are civil servants, firstresponders, or who work for a nonprofit or public-service organization.

Some donors prefer outright gifts; for others, a combination of an outright gift and a longer-term pledge that might involve a testimonial gift might be most attractive.

Current-use, or expendable, gifts have immediate impact and enable us to narrow the gap in the near term between the demonstrated need on the part of successful applicant families and our available funds earmarked for financial aid. Named endowment gifts, conversely, have enduring impact, supporting expanded financial-aid funding over the long term, underwriting an “ever stronger” Brunswick today and in the years to come.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss these and other giving options with you in the weeks and months ahead.

For additional information on the campaign and individual campaign objectives, please call or contact:

Thomas G. Murray Chief Advancement Officer Brunswick School

(203)

242-1225

tmurray@brunswickschool.org