Endowment & Capital Projects

Endowment

Capital gifts, generally to the physical plant or endowment, provide us with the opportunity to look to our future and secure the funding required to nurture programs, sustain people, and steward the campus over the long term. These strategic gifts differ from Annual Fund support, which provides a much-needed critical supplement to each year’s operating budget, and thus enriches our current programming.

We have much to celebrate as a result of great accomplishments facilitated by endowment and capital giving. Recent achievements include:

  • Our largest capital project to date, a $20M, 34,000 square-foot, seven-lab, seven-classroom science center which opened in early 2019
  • Construction of two new residential houses, St. Brigid’s for girls and St. Martin’s for boys
  • Establishment (through both acquisition and construction) of 13 new faculty residences
  • Endowing our first four faculty chairs
  • Restoration of the Church of St. Gregory the Great
  • $5.5 million in endowed scholarship funding
  • More than $2.6 million to endow specific academic programming
  • Construction of St. Hilda's Turf Field  

These initiatives have enabled us to:

  • Accommodate an increase in the boarding/day mix to >70%/30%
  • Attract and retain the best faculty, staff and administrators to the School
  • Remind us all of the central importance of our faith and shared worship in our lives
  • Allow us to offer more spaces to the most qualified applicants, regardless of their families’ financial means
  • Offer the most comprehensive, multi-disciplinary learning environment possible

In concert with these specific purposes, general unrestricted endowment giving enables the School to become less dependent on tuition as its primary source of revenue, which increases our flexibility and ability to innovate as we help young men and women to grow in knowledge and grace. Through the generosity of our constituents - alumni, parents, parents of alumni, and friends – capital appreciation, and fiscal discipline, the endowment is at an all-time high, from which we draw approximately 7-8% of the School's annual operating income.

While we can look with pride on our accomplishments, and the tangible difference they are making in every aspect of a Portsmouth education, there is much more to be done. Interested individuals are encouraged to communicate with Director of Advancement, Patty Gibbons.

Endowment funding is a critical component of every financially sound independent school. Your generous support of the endowment not only provides a permanent and stable foundation for Portsmouth Abbey School’s future, it also has a direct impact on today’s students. Income from endowed funds provides perpetual resources that support the ongoing work of Portsmouth Abbey’s faculty, staff, and monastic community as they help students to grow in knowledge and grace.

Where can my endowed gift go?

  • Unrestricted Gifts to the endowment enable the Board of Directors to utilize income, and potentially, principal wherever they determine it is most needed.
  • Scholarship Funds enable the School to continue to offer financial aid to more than 35% of its student body whose families want their children to receive a Portsmouth Abbey education, but lack all of the necessary financial resources.
  • Faculty Resources like endowed chairs and funds for professional development, departmental resources, and faculty salaries help the School to attract and retain the best educators.
  • Student Resources funds for specific purposes like athletics, library resources, lectures, community service, spiritual life, prizes, and more enhance the shared experience of community life on Cory's Lane.
  • Endowed Annual Funds allow donors to continue their legacy of annual financial support of the School and its mission in perpetuity.

How can I make an endowed gift?

  • Cash, including check or credit card
  • A gift of securities, which can be given by following these instructions. A gift of securities often enables the donor to avoid costly capital gains              
  • Deferred and Planned Gifts, made through an estate plan and/or a trust or retirement plan. These gifts enable a donor to create a permanent legacy, often with favorable tax implications which allow for gifts more impactful than ever imagined, and also entitle the donor to become part of the Hall Manor Society, Portsmouth Abbey School’s legacy giving society.

To discuss endowment giving opportunities at Portsmouth Abbey School or to make a gift to an existing endowed fund, please contact Director of Advancement Patty Gibbons at 401-643-1281.