COVID-19 Update - How you can Help

Now more than ever, the Annual Fund is Horace Mann School’s greatest philanthropic need. Annual Fund contributions from our loyal donors are making a tremendous and immediate impact affording HM the flexibility to respond adeptly to the most urgent, ongoing operational needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Current efforts include:

• The swift implementation of our dynamic and comprehensive virtual learning initiative, HM Online. Students are finishing the year by attending their classes, practices, and extracurricular activities via video conferencing and recorded instruction from the safety of their own homes. Faculty were encouraged to be creative with use of new software and online applications to enhance their lessons.
• Guaranteed salaries and benefits for the rest of the fiscal year to all faculty and staff, including Facilities Management and Public Safety personnel, custodians, and dining service workers. Nearly 80% of all tuition revenue is applied toward faculty and staff salaries and benefits, our largest annual expenditure.
• Unbudgeted technology costs associated with furnishing laptops or iPads and internet access to our students in need so that all HMers can successfully continue their education with equal access to HM Online.
• Increased and new requests for Financial Aid. For the 2019-20 academic year 14% of students received financial support totaling $10.1 million in tuition financial aid and an additional $700,000 in non-tuition aid (lunch, books, etc.). As we prepare for the 2020-21 academic year, we must address the demand for increased financial assistance, which has exceeded our budgeted allocations.

If you are in a position to give, please support HM’s Annual Fund. All gifts are appreciated during these uncertain times.

Our Alumni and Development Office staff are working remotely. If possible, we ask that you make your gift online by credit card or by stock or wire transfer. Please email alumni@horacemann.org for stock and wire instructions. If you prefer to send a check, staff are in the office once a week to process gifts sent by mail. For the duration of the school closure, we will send all donors gift acknowledgements and receipts via email.

 

Philanthropy at Horace Mann School

Since 1887, the philanthropic generosity of members of the Horace Mann School community has been crucial to the success of the School's mission. To continue to be able to educate capable young minds in socially significant ways, we depend on resources that exceed the cost of tuition and rely on financial donations from Parents, Alumni, Grandparents, Foundations, Faculty, Staff and Friends to provide this support.

The Alumni and Development Office works with the Development Committee of the Board of Trustees and over 350 Alumni and Parent volunteers to facilitate all major fundraising efforts for the school. The two main areas supported by philanthropy are the Annual Fund and Capital Campaigns.

Horace Mann School’s Annual Fund and the HM in Motion capital campaign play important yet separate roles in ensuring HM’s continued success. While the Annual Fund remains the school’s top fundraising priority, it is possible – and strongly encouraged – for our community to support both efforts!

The Annual Fund

Gifts to the Annual Fund are truly powerful investments that ensure HM’s ability to remain one of the top schools in the nation. Like all independent schools, Horace Mann relies on fundraising to make up the difference between expenses and revenue.These contributions help to close the gap between tuition revenue and the actual cost of a Horace Mann education, about $2,500 per student. Annual Fund contributions represent approximately 8% of the overall operating budget.

Annual Fund contributions are restricted to enhancing academic and co-curricular programming, attracting and retaining the best and brightest faculty and staff, providing financial aid for an economically diverse community of students, and maintaining our four campuses. In addition, strong philanthropic support of HM allows us to restrain tuition growth each year.

For more information, please visit our Annual Fund page.

To make a gift to the Annual Fund now, please click here: Make a gift online

HM in Motion Capital Campaign

All independent schools are required to raise capital funds for projects that are beyond the scope of their daily operations budget, for example, updated facilities or endowment enhancement.It is typical for a school to launch a capital campaign every five to eight years.While strong support of any capital initiative is crucial to the long term, academic and financial well being of Horace Mann, the Annual Fund and our ability to cover our annual operating expense remain our top philanthropic need.Contributions to a capital campaign should be considered as a donation made in addition to maintaining one’s current Annual Fund support.

HM in Motion is a four-year $100 million campaign with the specific goal of funding the construction and renovation of our new science, community, wellness, and athletics facilities on HM’s Bronx Campus. In many ways, this facilities campaign represents a natural extension of our donors’ philanthropic and volunteer leadership – an opportunity to maintain the School’s highest standards of academic excellence and national leadership in education. Publicly launched in September 2016, HM in Motion will continue through June 2020.

For more information, please visit the HM in Motion page.