The Endowment Project Expands Funding Opportunities for Public High Schools

2024

Endowment funds, common in private colleges and schools, are now making their way into the public school system. Entrepreneurs Michael Bor and Chris Bossola have launched The Endowment Project, aiming to create a $65 million endowment for every public high school in the U.S.

Starting with a pilot program in Richmond, Virginia, The Endowment Project has already seen success. Douglas S. Freeman High School raised nearly $100,000, funding scholarships, facility upgrades, and innovative learning spaces.

Inspired by rare success stories like Boston Latin School's $75 million endowment, The Endowment Project seeks to engage alumni and philanthropists to support public education. The project's infrastructure allows schools to easily set up funds, engage donors, and manage contributions transparently.

While traditional educational foundations focus on broader programs, The Endowment Project aims to supplement these efforts by targeting individual schools. It has already gained traction in Richmond, with plans to expand across Virginia and eventually nationwide.

The project's success hinges on its ability to engage alumni and philanthropists effectively. By leveraging technology and focusing on individual schools, The Endowment Project hopes to create sustainable funding streams that benefit public high schools across the country.

The Endowment Project: A Novel Approach to Public School Funding

The Endowment Project is a purpose-driven for-profit education technology company. It is building the philanthropic infrastructure for public schools, aiming to ensure that public high school students, faculty, and staff have a more robust high school experience.

Public and private colleges, universities, and private high schools have dedicated alumni development organizations that nurture strong community and allegiance and then harvest donations from these communities that further the school's mission. Public high schools do not have this. The Endowment Project is bridging this gap by building the infrastructure to enable public high schools to create strong and loyal communities and steward the generosity of those communities.

How The Endowment Project Works

The Endowment Project is a technology- and human resource-enabled platform designed to help public high schools build communities from which capital is raised, managed, and deployed to enhance the educational experience for millions of students, faculty, and staff at public high schools across the U.S.

The project uses its proprietary technology and human-capital-driven processes combined with best-in-class alumni development strategies to build philanthropic infrastructure, establish and build strong and loyal school communities, raise capital from those communities, and appropriately manage the raised assets to benefit the students, teachers, and administrators of U.S. public high schools.

Partnerships and Fundraising

The Endowment Project partners with existing education foundations to serve as their development and administrative back-office function. It creates a database of donors, expands the school community, and provides fundraising services for each of its partner foundations. The project also pools and manages the capital from each foundation, with the advantage of scale leading to higher returns.

The company also manages grant requests, funding, and reporting, ensuring that the raised funds are used effectively to benefit public high schools. It has launched several fundraising programs for local high schools as a proof-of-concept, with plans to expand its efforts nationwide.

Impact and Future Plans

The Endowment Project estimates that 200 million people in the United States went to public high schools, and the country has 25,000 such high schools. Its goal is to create greater equality in the education experience between public and private high schools by providing public high schools with the same opportunities for fundraising and community engagement.

As it rolls out its fundraising programs and expands its reach, The Endowment Project aims to change the face of public education in America, ensuring that all public high school students have access to a more robust and enriched educational experience.