“To dream without regard to cost.” This is how Melissa Soderberg, Head of School, describes a large endowment.
“A corpus,” or an endowment, works like a saving account. About 3-5% of it is used for campus enrichment and programs. The rest is reinvested to create capital. So, the goal is to grow the endowment through smart investments to turn profit.
Unlike the Annual Fund, the endowment does not occur annually. Rather, it comes from donors sporadically. But, it plays a pivotal role in creating an affordable and purposeful education.
Erich Hunker, Assistant Head of School for Development/External Relations, says, “Take Duke University, which has a $7 Billion endowment. Its tuition, without the endowment, would be $90,000. But now, its base tuition is $60,000. With this kind of funding, we can make a Columbus Academy education accessible to more families.”
Right now, the total revenue from tuition barely covers the cost of paying teachers, keeping the lights on, and all the other basic expenses of running a top-notch institution like our own. Soderberg says, “The costs are hidden. We want excellent teachers with both pedigree and experience. Higher quality teachers are more expensive but absolutely necessary.”
The administration maintains that they will not pack in more students to make the price tag cheaper because this would impede the quality of education. So, the school’s endowment (currently at $37 million) fills in the gaps that cannot be covered by tuition.
Having large financial support can surmount to interminable opportunities for students. Soderberg believes Vikings can continue to thrive from programs such as Skunkworks and Global Online Academy (GOA), and have even more outlets to engage outside of the classroom. “We can hire more English teachers to offer more individualized attention to students’ writing, start research programs, go on service endeavors, partner with universities, and even take our athletes to the best tournaments in the country. Really, the list is endless.”
By financing professional development workshops and conferences, the endowment can even help teachers stay on their A-game. Mr. Hunker adds, “We are right up there with the best. I mean if you look at barometers like ACT and SAT averages, college matriculation, and percentage of faculty with graduate degrees, we are competing with the best independent schools in the nation. But, in regard to our endowment we are playing catch-up.”
The reason for Academy’s lower endowment trickles down to one word—culture. Columbus Academy started as a small day school just over a century ago. Schools like Exeter and Andover were established earlier, so they were the first to talk to alumni about giving to an endowment or putting their schools in their wills for bequests. As a result, they have the most donors. “It’s not an excuse. It’s a reality,” says Soderberg.
