With more than 30,000 individual gifts, the Sidwell Friends community shines together.

Thanks to the groundswell of support from the Sidwell Friends community, the “Together We Shine” campaign has closed its initial phase as the largest and most transformative campaign in the School’s 141-year history. Launched in 2015 and made public in October 2022, the campaign surpassed its $152 million goal—nearly triple the amount of the previous campaign—by the June 30, 2024 deadline.The success of “Together We Shine,” which lived up to its name with nearly 30,000 individual gifts, underscores the Sidwell community’s deep commitment to the School’s vision and future.

Young Donors, Families, and New Endowments

More than 3,000 donors made their first-ever gift to Sidwell Friends during this campaign. Many are young alumni, reflecting the enduring impact of the School’s mission on its graduates. Contributions included 34 gifts of $1 million or more. To recognize the generosity of these families, and future million-dollar donors, the School has launched The William Penn Society, which now includes more than 50 families who have made gifts of that amount or more in their lifetime to Sidwell Friends. Many joined Head of School Bryan Garman for the society’s inaugural dinner this spring. Over the course of the campaign, many donors also were inspired to make gifts to the School’s endowment, thus providing long-lasting, sustainable support. Donors established more than 30 new endowed funds, which will reduce Sidwell’s dependency on tuition revenue to maintain and further overall academic excellence.

The Impact Has Already Begun

The campaign focused on three strategic goals:

• Reimagining the future of learning by transforming how, what, and where our students learn

• Welcoming a wider community through greater access to a Sidwell Friends education

• Ethically engaging the world via the role we play in our city and the way we steward our planet. Donors’ transformative impact is already underway.

Highlights include:

Groundbreaking for an Innovative New Upper School

Thoughtfully, ethically, and sustainably designed, the new Upper School will add six contiguous acres to the Sidwell Friends Washington, DC, campus. In addition to new capacity in science, robotics, scholarship, and research, the new Upper School also lays the groundwork for Sidwell to become a carbon-neutral campus. Construction began in June, with the new building scheduled to open for the 2026-27 school year. The Class of 2030 will be the inaugural freshman class to enter this state-of-the-art facility. Significantly, the purchase of the land and facility for the new Upper School was a first essential step to a planned unification of all three school divisions on one campus later in the decade.Two New All-School CentersOnce renovated, the New Upper School will also be home to two new centers that will serve the entire school community: The Center for Ethical Leadership will encourage action and empower ethical leadership and agency in our students through coursework, community engagement, internships, and entrepreneurship. The Center for Teaching and Learning will enable teachers to continue to learn and share new and successful methodologies with one another.

Huge Boost to Financial Aid

Sidwell Friends provides one of the largest financial aid programs in the Washington, DC area, currently supporting nearly 25 percent of the student body. Through the campaign, donors significantly strengthened the School’s endowment to ensure that a Sidwell Friends education is accessible to the most talented students in the Washington, DC area, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

New Endowed Chairs

Endowed chairs are a powerful tool to recruit and retain the best teachers and professionals for our School and guarantee that we will have ongoing expertise in these areas. Many donors in the Sidwell Friends community were eager to rally around the establishment of several endowed positions including the Directorship of Equity, Justice, and Community, the Señora Guillermina Medrano de Supervía Endowed Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies, the Mamadou Guèye Chair in African and African American Studies, the Asian American Studies Chair, and the Faculty Chair in Environmental and Life Sciences in memory of Melanie Fields.

Reflecting on this Historic Moment

Year after year, donors strengthen Sidwell Friends’ ability to prepare generations of students to let their lives speak. This campaign’s unprecedented success will forever change the landscape of our campus and the way we teach our students, support our faculty, and fulfill our mission. Tara Arras, Assistant Head of School for Advancement said, “We are grateful for the dedication of the Campaign Volunteer Committee led by Co-Clerks Jason Carroll ‘96, Charis Menschel P’25, ‘27, ‘29, and David Milner ‘86, Clerk of the Board Mark Jacobsen P’24, ‘27, and the Honorary Leadership of Arlene and Robert Kogod P’76, ‘79, ‘80, Helen Austern Colson ‘53, P’82, ‘84, ‘87, and David P. Pearson ‘52. Together they led more than 100 volunteers who tirelessly gave of their time and philanthropy to encourage the support of others.”

There is a deep sense of gratitude and humility for the collective effort that has made this historic achievement possible. As May Liang P ’17, ’20 who served on the campaign’s steering committee says, “The secret of Sidwell Friends School has always been its moral compass of Quaker values combined with its academic excellence. A community that supports and, indeed, bonds around that is a community that will continue to thrive and provide the necessary leadership for the country and the world in the 21st century and beyond.”