The Country Day Fund is our annual giving program and top giving priority because it directly impacts our greatest assets—our students and our teachers. Far-reaching and essential, the Country Day Fund directly impacts everything that makes Country Day exceptional.
The Country Day Fund, our annual giving program, is our top giving priority because it directly impacts our greatest assets—our students and our teachers.
Where do the funds go?
The Board of Trustees and Head of School are committed to minimizing tuition increases while continuing to offer every student an excellent education. The Country Day Fund offers a tax-deductible opportunity to augment tuition revenue that supports the school’s operating budget each year. The majority of any school budget is applied to people and facility maintenance, leaving little flexibility due to those fixed costs. The cost of providing an excellent education continues to increase significantly, putting pressure on the budget while maintaining a minimal increase in tuition every year. Dollars raised ensure that the school can:
Attract and support excellent faculty and staff
Offer dynamic programming
Allow students access to technology
Maintain small classroom sizes
Provide professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff
Offer financial aid opportunities that foster community
The Country Day Fund allows the Country Day community—parents, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, grandparents, and friends of all financial circumstances—the ability to support the life of the school. This is a common practice for most independent schools throughout the country.
Country Day Fund Supports Our Students and Teachers
Exceptional Academics
Step by step, Country Day students learn how to break large problems into small parts, to conduct research, and to express their ideas. Guided by teachers who expertly move each student toward his or her own highest potential, our students explore possibilities, gain skills and knowledge, and tackle intellectual challenges, as we prepare them to take their place in the world.
Outstanding Faculty
Our outstanding educators receive encouragement and support to hone their craft and stay up-to-date with the latest research. Our teachers know they are expected to keep growing and learning, and they are motivated by a professional community that values new ideas and approaches.
Going Beyond Academics
At Country Day, academic rigor is balanced by community service and athletic, artistic, and extracurricular endeavors. As partners in our students’ success, our goal is to shape confident, healthy, well-rounded adults who are comfortable and successful in diverse settings-individuals of honor, integrity, and purpose who are ready to make significant contributions to society.
Strength in Community
We are committed to living as an authentic, inclusive community. Our pursuit of this commitment to community recognizes and affirms the richness brought by difference and discovered through commonality. Central to this commitment to prepare our students for their future is creating a diverse academic community.
All giving to Country Day is greatly appreciated and offers important support to various areas of school life. The Country Day Fund is a budgeted fundraising priority of the school because it offers significant, unrestricted operating support to Country Day on a yearly basis. Fundraising efforts hosted by the Parents’ Association, Boosters Club, and other parent volunteer groups raise supplemental dollars for special projects to build community and offer other ways for families to give of their time and resources to the school.
Does the Country Day Fund support the construction efforts on campus?
Since the Country Day Fund contributes unrestricted funding annually to the school's operating budget, restricted, capital gifts are used to pay for construction projects identified as critical needs through our strategic plan and long-range master facilities plan. Continued growth of the Country Day Fund is key to successfully operating these new facilities and allowing the programs they ultimately host to flourish.
The Country Day Fund provides unrestricted support for the school’s operating budget, which is allocated annually by the Board of Trustees. Areas of impact are not designations for funding, but allow Country Day to better understand what inspires our generous donors to give annually. The school will then share what difference their annual gift helps make in those areas.
The Country Day Fund invites our annual donors to share what Areas of Impact are most meaningful for them. These areas include:
Country Day established levels to recognize and honor donors who make generous gifts to the Country Day Fund. The extraordinary support of this generous group of leaders is critical to Country Day's success.
Only you know what a meaningful gift is for your family. Your participation at any level helps ensure the success of our campaign and communicates your commitment to sustaining and strengthening Country Day for future generations.
Recognition Levels
Head's Circle
>$20,000+
$15,000–$19,999
$10,000–$14,999
Leadership Circle
$7,500–$9,999
$5,000–$7,499
Selwyn Society
$2,500–$4,999
$1,500–$2,499
Friends of Country Day
$1,000–$1,499
$500–$999
Up to $499
Young Alumni Selwyn Society (YASS)
Classes of 2004–2008: $500+
Classes of 2009–2014: $250+
Classes of 2015–2018: Participation
What is the Selwyn Society?
The Selwyn Society honors Country Day's generous supporters who have made gifts of $1,500 or more to the Country Day Fund during a fiscal year. The loyal support of this group of leaders is critical to giving Country Day students distinctive academic experiences.
The Young Alumni Selwyn Society recognizes alumni who graduated within the last 15 years and display their leadership by making a gift to the Country Day Fund.
Each year, volunteers work in collaboration with the Advancement Office to connect with all members of the Country Day community to encourage broad-based support for the school’s top giving priority—the Country Day Fund. Through their leadership, perspective, and personal outreach efforts, Country Day Fund volunteers help ensure the success of each campaign.
2018–19 Country Day Fund Volunteers
Country Day Fund Co-Chairs: Don and Sonia Cleven Leadership: Alex Funderburg Current Parents: Susannah Beach, Parker Shuford Lower School: Becca Bush Middle School: Melissa Estes Upper School: Kristin Foster Senior Parents: Katy Beltz, Leigh Bowles New Parent: Derek and Jen Thomas POCIS: Tracy Rivers Alumni: Sammy Hood ’96, Matt McAulay ’01
With two daughters enrolled in the Middle School, we see the positive influence Country Day has on our children and our family every day. Our gratitude, pride, and belief in Country Day are why we support the Country Day Fund—to make a meaningful difference for the school we love.
Sonia and Don Cleven, 2018–19 Country Day Fund Chairs
Questions?
If you have questions about the Country Day Fund or would like to volunteer, please contact:
Leighann Swanson, Director of the Country Day Fund
(704) 943-4540 | E-mail
