FAQ

The Foundation is an 18 year old, non-profit organization located in Bronxville, that is independent from our school but with the sole purpose of supporting our school and educational excellence in our village. We raise money each year through donations from community members, alumni, corporations and others. These contributions are then used annually to fund grants exclusively for the Bronxville School that provide new equipment, programs, curriculum innovations, teacher training and tools that make our school an even stronger academic institution.

Back in 1991, after considering the long-term direction and needs of our school, and the predicted political and economic situation for New York State public educational institutions in the future, the Board of Education and concerned citizens determined that the creation of an independent foundation would be extremely beneficial for the Bronxville School. A foundation could ensure that incremental funding would be available in the future to continue to support our school as a Blue Ribbon School, and provide one of the best public school experiences anywhere in the state. After significant effort was made by many individuals to set up an effective and highly professional organization, the Bronxville School Foundation was incorporated in the spring of 1991.

Yes we do, and we turn to this statement during all of our grant reviews and board activities to make sure we are consistently faithful to this mission.

The Bronxville School Foundation was incorporated in 1991 to enhance the quality of public education in our community by engaging the support and energies of educators, citizens, parents, students and alumni. The Foundation awards grants for projects that:

• Strengthen the curriculum by serving as a catalyst for the development and promotion of innovative programs.
• Support additional training for faculty members and enhance the educational resources available to them.
• Provide financial assistance for special school facilities and equipment.
• Increase the community’s awareness and support for the school.

The Foundation and the PTA do definitely have some similarities. These organizations exist to support our school, have been extremely successful, have a strong volunteer base and provide resources for the school. Our school benefits significantly from both of these organizations.
However, the structure and focus of these two are not exactly the same. The BSF is a unique, Bronxville based organization with a primary goal to raise money and provide grants for the School. It was created with the stipulation that it should be a long-term entity; therefore it has an endowment. The BSF’s endowment is currently over $1 million and our donors are able to choose whether to make their gifts for the endowment or to go toward the general fund. The endowment funds are held in an investment portfolio and we have an investment advisor who helps us to manage all of our funds. The BSF has awarded significantly more dollars in grants than the PTA over the last 18 years and we are able to make more sizeable grants because of our much larger donations and our portfolio. For example, in one year, the BSF made grant awards of more than $535,000. Most of this money went toward the exciting new equipment and technology inside our classrooms. The BSF also has funded a wide variety of grants including teacher training and we have a much larger board involved in a detailed approval process of grant awards.

The PTA is a national organization. Families pay dues to be part of the PTA. A primary focus and role for the PTA is the support of the teacher- parent relationships. They are responsible for funding and providing the volunteers for all three councils and for many school events, such as teacher recognition lunches, picnics, etc. In the last few years, the PTA has raised a great deal of funds from Memorial Day Weekend events, which has been their primary fundraiser. This year, 2009, the silent auction component of their fundraiser was shifted to a Saturday night event in March. For a few years the PTA had a fall grants cycle, but given the structure of the PTA (volunteers hold positions for only one year), they felt it would be better to allocate any extra money after funding the councils to facility based projects. It was felt that this would also better differentiate the BSF and PTA. The BSF has a member of the PTA board sit on our own board to maximize the interaction between the two groups and ensure we continue working together to support the goals of our school. We meet with the PTA leadership from time to time to explore other ways for the two organizations to work together.

There are indeed many important non-profit organizations in our village that need support from community members. These groups, such as The Community Fund, Bereavement Center, and FCS do an outstanding job raising money and providing grants and programs to support various services for the broader Eastchester community, of which Bronxville is a part. Many of our school families benefit from these critical services. However, these organizations do not provide support for academic programs in the Bronxville School. The Foundation raises money solely to enhance the school environment.

This is an excellent question and perhaps the most important one of all. Most individuals in our community would be surprised to learn about how much curriculum support and resources in every classroom have come from Foundation grants. We have a very strong school, but remember, we are a public school, and our budget is only so big and state aid to our district tends to be fairly small. The administrators, teachers and board do a great job each year, getting the very best for our school, given our budget. But there are often things that our budget can’t cover that are integral to creating a stimulating and challenging learning environment.

As a community, we expect our school to be way above average. We are dedicated to educational excellence in all aspects within our school and have very high standards. In order to deliver against these standards, it is necessary to be able to support our students with quality techniques, tools and curriculum. Our teachers and administrators have creative, exciting ideas for how to accomplish these goals. They need a place to be able to go for support when they have great ideas for improving the experience for our students. But sometimes our budget can’t cover these important needs. That is where the Foundation comes in. We can provide the extra needed to ensure that no matter what, those important resources are in our classrooms. This leads to motivation of and improved performance by our school staff and our student body.

Over the past 18 years, we have awarded an impressive 434 grants that have equaled almost $4.2 million of support. For the school year ending June 2009 we made over $362,000 in awards. There is no other public school foundation in Westchester County that has come close to achieving these results. We are so deeply grateful to our donors. The Bronxville community’s support of its school is unparalleled!

While the majority of requests do come from our teachers and administrators, we also get requests from students, parents and others. Any community member can submit a request, providing the request is focused on resources for the Bronxville School.

For example, we have had parents involved in requests for Drama support and the WISE program and students making requests for support related to their student government and visiting speakers.

Grants have been awarded in every area of the school, from art to athletics and for every academic subject. In addition, the elementary, middle and high schools have all been given strong support over the years. If you were taken through the school and shown all the things that wouldn’t be there if they hadn’t been given through Foundation grants, you would be impressed. Parents who visited classrooms at back to- school night saw literally hundreds of resources that were in those rooms because of Foundation grants and probably didn’t even know it.

Examples are science microscopes and probes, a huge number of computers, project adventure equipment in the new gym, all the equipment in the new fitness center, SMART boards and projectors, spelling programs in the lower grades, globes, computer software, language DVD’s and on and on. And those are the ones that could be seen. That doesn’t include curriculum innovations, and important teacher training, the high school AP courses and the elementary Developmental Reading programs that began with a grant from the Foundation.

Many school families do contribute and have been faithful supporters of the Foundation. We are grateful for each and every gift. Our teachers and students are most fortunate to have this kind of support from the community. This past year, close to half our school families gave a donation. There may be many reasons why a school family would choose not to make a donation to the Foundation. One reason may be that people really don’t know what the Foundation does and how donations are used to give all of our children such important incremental resources. Every student in our school benefits from Foundation grants, whether their families are donors or not.

In 2009 we had total contributions of $381,000. Almost 1200 individuals made donations to the Foundation. We get donations from many different types of households. We have donors who are school families, those who are empty nesters, donors without children, grandparents, faculty, alumni, corporate gifts and many others.

Yes, we do almost all of our fundraising through a letter of appeal to the community that is mailed in early November. The letter reaches all the Bronxville community, all school families and some additional friends of our school who live outside the 10708 area. We send a second reminder appeal letter in early spring. In addition, we have a separate mailing to our alumni in the spring, which includes a copy of our alumni newsletter. The alumni group is very important to the BSF and we in fact, are the only alumni “office” in our school. We help with tours, alumni reunions, directories and general inquiries. Last year we had donations to the BSF from alumni from 25 different states.

There is no minimum amount for a gift. The decision of how much to give is a completely personal one. While we do publish a list of the names of all of our donors in our annual report each year, we do not ever report donors by the amount they have given. Every gift is meaningful to the BSF regardless of size. It is the participation in building something great together that is so appreciated.

We have individual donations of $25 and some over $10,000. The range is very large. Our average donation is around $400 but that is obviously skewed by our very large donors. Another way to look at it is that about 50% of our donors give $100 or less, 30% give between $101 and $999 and 20% give $1000 or more.

We have a 30 member board which is comprised of 26 volunteer community members, the V.P. of the PTA, one school board representative, the superintendent and the BSF Executive Director. The community members represent a broad cross section of our overall community. As representatives for all our donors, our board takes their responsibility in considering all grants very seriously. We are focused on ensuring that the grants awarded are beneficial for a large number of students, are in line with the goals of the school, and consistent with the BSF mission. In March, all of the grant requests are submitted to the BSF and given to the board to review. We have a very rigorous procedure for grants evaluation. After a detailed, month long review process, the grant requests are voted on by the entire BSF board. All gifts made to the school must be accepted by the School Board, including grants from the Foundation. Not all grants requests receive funding. Some do not meet our criteria. We often have to make trade-offs because we have requests totaling more dollars than we actually have in funds to cover them. This is where our donor base, again, plays such a critical role.

The BSF has 26 volunteer board members, who are responsible for a large part of the work that is done. We do also have a paid, part time Executive Director and a part time administrative assistant, who provide very necessary support to the BSF. We are extremely conservative about all expenses. Our Executive Director receives a stipend while our administrative assistant is paid on an hourly basis. In addition, we have some costs related to our mailings and general office supplies. While we are a separate institution from the school, we have extensive day-to-day activities with the school staff and the administration has been very generous in providing the BSF with office space in the school.

One very important reason that the BSF has been so successful over the years, as compared to other foundations, is because we have actively involved our administration and school board in our process and as members of our board. This has guaranteed that we were all on the same page and working toward the same goals. This has not, however, meant that the administration or school board has dictated what we have funded. They have provided important input but not determined the outcome. We are an independent organization and our board members all have an equally important say in the results of the BSF.

The opportunities are very exciting… there are only two constraints (1) having exciting ideas surfaced to the Foundation through grant requests or special project and then, of course, (2) raising enough funds from our community to make big things happen. If we could even just get every family with a child in our school to give a contribution, we would already be on the way to being able to do even more.

Taxes are certainly a concern of all of our community members, including our board members. There is no doubt that taxes have gone up significantly since the Foundation began. Parts of these increases have been related to achieving our goals for our school. But there are also costs that are outside of our district’s control (such as pension requirements, state-mandated programs and certiorari awards) that have increased dramatically, even though they do not directly benefit our children. And, our tax increases have been pretty consistent with other like districts. While our taxes may be considered to be high, if you compare Bronxville to other communities, you find that the relationship between our taxes and our property values is actually good. We all realize that the quality of our school has had a direct impact on our housing values.

There are important factors that accentuate the need for even greater Foundation support for our school in the future. The number of children in our school has increased by almost 50% over the past few years. That has meant more teachers and an expanded building, with related costs. It also places more demands for the type of programs that the Foundation makes possible, which tend to be directly used by students (like computers). In this rapidly changing, competitive, and technology driven world, it is critical that we have the necessary resources available in our school, and to maintain the excellent caliber and reputation of our school. The Foundation is there to provide that extraordinarily important support. Our taxes turn on the lights of the school. Foundation grants turn on the enthusiasm and achievement of our kids. We need both.

Yes, since we started the BSF, other public schools have also come to realize the merits of an independent foundation. Our Executive Director attends a roundtable event each year, where directors of the other Westchester school foundations get together to discuss the successes and issues they face. Bronxville has been a gold standard among this group and we are frequently asked about how we’ve accomplished so much. There are currently foundations in Bedford, Chappaqua, Harrison, Irvington, Katonah, Pelham and many other school systems in Westchester.

You can give gifts directly to our school. But working together and pooling donations through the Foundation allows for grants to be supported for important, bigger ideas that are consistent with the school’s specific goals. We have a sophisticated structure for fundraising and awarding grants and an ongoing dialogue with the school administrators to be sure that all gifts benefit the school in the most appropriate and useful way.

In the spring, we nominate new members to the BSF board. Anyone who has an interest in serving can send a letter to our V.P. of the Nominating Committee to express that interest in being considered for our board in the future. We also have been extremely fortunate to have some community members with expertise in particular areas such as photography, desktop publishing, marketing and graphic design, volunteer their services to help us with specific short-term projects. If you have a special talent or interest such as these, there are many ways you may be able to contribute to Foundation activities. You can contact our Executive Director, Peggy Williams at 914-395-0515.