Where tuition ends, the Annual Fund begins. The Cushing Academy Annual Fund provides critical support for just about everything that happens at the Academy. The Annual Fund is essential to maintaining and advancing our faculty, programs, activities, and facilities. Gifts to the fund provide operating support and help sustain the Academy’s budget, ensuring stability for every department’s financial resources. Knowing that we can rely on our donors’ annual gifts allows us to make the best use of resources today and effectively plan for the future. Your contribution to the Annual Fund impacts every aspect of the Cushing experience and community.

Matching Gifts: One way to maximize your giving to Cushing Academy is to take advantage of your company’s matching gift program. Employee matches typically range from a 1:1 to 1:3 ratio. Your employer’s Human Resources office can provide the information and forms you need to take advantage of this benefit. 

• Help expand our endowment. Cushing's endowment acts as a permanent savings account for the institution. Donors can support the endowment with gifts of any size.

As at any educational institution—including independent schools, colleges, and universities, both public and private—donations to Cushing’s endowment are invested and the returns on those investments are both spent and reinvested. The rate at which the funds are spent varies so that both the value of the endowment and the expenditures rise over time to keep pace with inflation.

Endowment size is related to institutional health and sustainability because the larger the endowment, the better the return. A larger return on investment means that a higher percent of the return can be spent each year. For example, an endowment that has an annual return of 10 percent might spend 5 percent of that return, thus ensuring that the principal continues to grow and keep pace with inflation. Likewise, an endowment with an 8 percent return might spend only 4 percent.

Of course, the growth of an endowment is not dependent only on investment return. The endowment also grows as a result of gifts to the school.

Often, a school's endowment is broken up into smaller funds directed toward a specific purpose such as scholarships, faculty salaries, unrestricted funds for a department, or maintenance for facilities. Frequently, such funds are named by a donor and the size of those funds varies depending on its purpose. For example, a full scholarship fund must be large enough to generate adequate funding to support a student whereas a fund that provides unrestricted funding for a department could be smaller. That said, a gift needn't be large to support a school's endowment. A gift of any size may be directed toward the endowment in support of any area of the school.

Sometimes, as is largely the case at Cushing, the endowment supplements the Academy's operating budget. However, endowments may also add to what an institution might do above and beyond operating expenses—such as constructing new facilities, helping faculty continue their educations, and allowing faculty to take students on field trips, thereby supplementing the education the students receive.

If you have questions about Cushing's endowment, its growth, or how you can support it, please contact the Office of Advancement at [email protected] or (978) 827-7400.

An important part of leaving a legacy is to feel confident in its purpose and stewardship. Entrusting your legacy to Cushing Academy includes the certainty of knowing you are part of a long-standing tradition of philanthropy. Thomas Parkman Cushing may have begun the story, but your gift continues it. We encourage you to reflect on your story and consider some of the planned giving strategies in consultation with your tax or legal advisors. For more information about how Cushing Academy can be helpful with your plans, please contact the Office of Advancement at [email protected] or (978) 827-7400.

If you have already included Cushing Academy in your estate plans, Thank you!  We encourage you to let us know by filling out the Declaration of Intent Form and sending it back to us.

Planned Giving Opportunities Guide - PDF | 7.6MB

• Founders - $1,000,000 and above
• Benefactors - $500,000 to $999,999
• Patrons - $100,000 to $499,999

• Cowell Circle - $100,000 or more
• Curry Circle - $50,000 to $99,999
• Quimby Circle - $25,000 to $49,999
• Vose Circle - $10,000 to $24,999
• Lamson Circle - $5,000 to $9,999
• Heads' Circle - $1,865 to $4,999

• 1865 Society - Recognizes donors who have included Cushing in their estate plans
   
• Royal Penguin Society - Recognizes donors who have made gifts in three or more consecutive years