INVESTING IN OUR ENVIRONMENT
At the heart of our appointed jobs as caretakers of St. Luke’s is our commitment to managing the School’s financial position in order to guarantee its future strength. We are so grateful that due to the generosity of countless St. Luke’s families, alumni, and friends, coupled with sound investment strategies, we have grown our endowment from $3.3M in 2002 to $31.5M today. Despite this significant increase over the past 17 years, it is incumbent upon us to continue to grow our endowment. Right now, the endowment provides only 3% of our annual operating revenue. A more robust endowment would allow us to better withstand economic downturns, moderate tuition increases, increase flexibility for strategic programmatic and capital investments, and offer our teachers more competitive salaries. As part of this final phase of the Momentum Campaign,
we are aiming to grow the endowment’s corpus to $40M by 2020, which will allow the endowment to contribute approximately 5% of the School’s operating income. At present, our endowment lags our peer schools in the Fairfield and Westchester County regions by a significant margin. For example, New Canaan Country School, the school my children attended prior to coming to St. Luke’s, has a $41.4M endowment and Brunswick boasts an endowment of nearly $130M. Our longer-term goal is to grow the endowment so that it can fund 10% of St. Luke’s operating budget as we want to ensure a strong foundation. To that end, the Board of Trustees is focused on growing the endowment through the following initiatives: • Creating a new $1M Faculty Development Endowed Fund, to facilitate the strategic retention of top faculty; • Investing $3M in a Rotating Endowed Faculty Chair program, which will furnish three highly deserving faculty members with this title— the highest level of recognition for teaching excellence at St. Luke’s; • Cultivating an Unrestricted Board-Designated Endowment Fund of $6.5M, which will give the school the flexibility to deploy resources as they are needed most and where unique strategic opportunities exist; and • Raising an additional $1.5M for the Richard M. Whitcomb Endowed Scholarship Fund, which we have already achieved. This Fund provides need-based scholarships for students who embody the values of St. Luke’s School in honor of former Head of School, Richard Whitcomb.
ENDOWMENT GROWTH Over Time 35,000,000 30,000,000
25,000,000 20,000,000 15,000,000 10,000,000 5,000,000 0
2002 2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016 2018
*2018 endowment values are as of June 30, 2018
FAIRCHESTER PEER SCHOOL Comparison Value of Endowment (Millions)
ST. LUKE’S SCHOOL
NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL
*2018 endowment values are as of June 30, 2018
129.7
As the Chair of the Financial Affairs Committee, it is my privilege to ensure that we are efficiently and effectively stewarding and deploying the School’s resources to maintain the financial sustainability of St. Luke’s. In close partnership with the administration, our board committee examines proposed budgets, investment options, balance sheets, and reports in order to understand the short-term positions and long-term needs of our beloved school.
116.6
CAROLYN WOODBERRY, TRUSTEE, CHAIR OF THE BOARD FINANCIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
43
Securing our Future
An investment in our endowment is an investment in the future of St. Luke’s and fuel for all that our children will accomplish beyond the Hilltop. The combined generosity of current and past families, alumni of all ages, and friends of St. Luke’s, will strengthen the School’s position to do what it does best: prepare students to “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve.”
41.4
INVESTING IN OUR ENDOWMENT:
31.5
22
GREENS FARMS ACADEMY
GREENWICH ACADEMY
BRUNSWICK SCHOOL