Our Priorities

A gift of endowment ensures that Burroughs has the resources required for a second century of service and learning. As we prepare for the school’s Centennial in 2023, one of our major strategic goals is to substantially grow the endowment to control tuition, support scholarship, support key programs, and to ensure staff salaries are competitive. As a donor of endowed funds, you:

• Provide a permanent place for your extended family to direct their gifts to Burroughs.
• Celebrate your family, a loved one or a favorite faculty member by naming your fund.
• Secure permanent funding for Burroughs because the principal of your endowed fund is invested and untouched in perpetuity. Your gift lasts forever.
• Connect with the beneficiaries of your generosity through personalized reports that will give you the satisfaction of knowing how your funds impact the school.

For information about establishing an endowed fund at Burroughs, contact Ginger Imster, Director of Advancement and External Affairs.

For Burroughs to maintain the school’s enduring commitment to inclusion and educational equity, the endowment must be of a size large enough to reduce the school’s dependence on tuition income which currently provides more than 80 percent of the school’s annual revenue.

The amount required to establish a named scholarship fluctuates each year as tuition costs change. Each year, donors and their designees receive notification of their beneficiary inclusive of the student’s background, academic success, etc. Lifelong relationships often develop between donor and beneficiary. For the 2020-2021 school year, nearly 26 percent of students receive scholarship support, including children of faculty and staff.

To sustain the Burroughs tradition of excellence, the school must provide the resources necessary to attract and educate the most talented students in the St. Louis area, regardless of their families’ ability to pay. You can make an impact on the tuition aid program at Burroughs by creating a restricted fund for scholarship or tuition aid. Named endowed scholarships provide the equivalent of a full tuition for one student in perpetuity. Quarter and half scholarships can also be endowed.

Burroughs’ core curriculum is grounded in the arts, athletics, global studies, humanities, service and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Students are required to take classes in all these areas and more because Burroughs believes in the power of YET.

Longtime art teacher and department chair Charlie Derleth promoted the power of YET during his 20-year career at Burroughs. Many seventh graders would tell Charlie that they could not draw. Charlie would remind them that they could not draw…YET. The liberal arts foundation gives Burroughs students the opportunity to discover their capacity to learn, grow, improve and to discover the power of YET.

Donors can endow virtually any aspect of the academic program including:

• Faculty Chairs & Directorships
• Faculty, Student & Program Funds
• Other academic programs

Burroughs is a very attractive place for teaching and administrative talent; however, the competition for professionals requires Burroughs to be in a position to increase its investment in salaries and training.

Faculty Professional Development
Hiring and retaining the very best faculty has long been a top priority for Burroughs. In the last decade, we've added several new positions including a director of academics, a director of service learning and a STEM director. We’ve increased the staff in our Counseling & Wellness, Academic Support, College Counseling, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity offices as well. As we add faculty, we also invest in them. Donors have created three new endowed chairs for a total of 10 endowed positions. We added the Bogliasco Fellowship which provides a month-long residency at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities in Bogliasco, Italy. We have also added additional sabbaticals and professional development opportunities to provide faculty with time and resources to grow as educators. To continue to attract and retain the very best teaching and administrative talent, Burroughs is seeking new endowed chairs to support ongoing professional development.
 
Burroughs Faculty Fellows
To bring young and diverse educators to Burroughs, the school must compete for the best talent to see professional opportunity in St. Louis. Endowed funds are needed to develop partnerships with outstanding teacher training programs throughout the world. In addition, endowed funds would be used to ensure Burroughs Faculty Fellows are paid a reasonable stipend, as well as room and board, to make fellowships at Burroughs more attractive.
 
Innovation Fund
Burroughs is seeking endowed funds to further encourage teachers to pilot innovative programs, support student equity through programs for at-risk students and engage in collaborative partnerships between departments. Proposed projects would be peer-reviewed, peer-approved and funded through the Burroughs Innovation Fund. This is a new initiative and one that we hope is a collaborative effort between donors and teachers as funding is secured. 

In 1923, the Burroughs campus was comprised of less than 20-acres. Today, the campus is nearly 50-acres. Changes to the Burroughs campus have been measured and deliberate. The recently completed improvements to facilities and green spaces demonstrate how committed the Burroughs community remains to well-reasoned change to meet the needs of students.

Click here to learn more about the Burroughs Fine Art Collection, Campus Improvements, Campus Operations and Drey Land.