Objective: To increase Choate’s endowment by nearly 50% through unrestricted gifts and commitment to key institutional priorities.

Impact: To provide $5.5 million in added investment income annually to support Choate’s people and programs.

Many would describe a Choate Rosemary Hall education as a priceless experience.

However, they would also acknowledge that it is quite an expensive one. The breadth of academic, artistic, and athletic offerings Choate provides, the close personal attention it affords, and the opportunity it extends to students of limited means all come at a cost. Furthermore, this cost is virtually impossible to support solely through tuition and annual funding sources — even with generous annual giving.

Instead, as Choate’s peer schools and the nation’s leading colleges and universities have demonstrated, the optimal model for sustaining a vibrant educational enterprise is a strong endowment. Such an endowment provides a permanent, predictable, and growing revenue source and is key to the vitality of schools like Choate.

When compared with the endowments of Choate’s peer schools — and with the ambitious range of programs Choate sponsors — Choate’s endowment is relatively small, in part because the school was founded as a private concern and got a late start in developing philanthropic support.

The campaign presents Choate’s alumni, parents and friends with an exciting opportunity: to add principal to the school’s endowment by $110 million, including $40 million dedicated to financial aid, $17 million for faculty development, and additional endowment support for a range of other identified priorities.

This achievement will ensure and expand the educational opportunity Choate offers and greatly strengthen its financial standing.

• Choate’s endowment totals $217 million, among the smallest in its set of peer schools and roughly a third of Exeter’s and Andover’s.*
• Choate’s goal is endowment growth that will close the gap separating it from most of its peers.
• Unrestricted endowment funding is particularly vital, supporting every dimension of the school’s operation.
* As of June 30, 2009. Comparative data from the Council for Advancement of Education.