Stewardship and Community

A Quaker foundation for difficult times

For more than five decades, Carolina Friends School has weathered many crises, from the bombing of the newly built Lower School by those against integration to gas shortages and financial recessions. Thanks to the support of our community members and careful stewardship of our resources, we have built a sustainable school animated by our Quaker values. In recent years, we have been fully enrolled, with increasing interest — for the coming school year, we have had a record number of new student applications. Our community has also strengthened our sustainability through building our endowments. While there is still much work to be done to continue to build on these efforts, they have helped situate us to weather this crisis.

We are so grateful for this firm foundation, even as the current pandemic has stoked economic concerns throughout the country and within our learning community. Many of our families have experienced or anticipate financial hardship as well as significant uncertainty about the future. In addition to providing tuition payment flexibility, this spring the Board of Trustees spear-headed a new emergency tuition relief fund. With a first round of applicants this spring, fundraising for emergency tuition relief and the many other COVID-19 related expenses is being designed to support multiple school years, as the financial impacts related to COVID-19 become known.

During the last economic recession, a similar effort was organized to prevent financial concerns from dictating whether or not families could remain in our community. Over three years, sufficient funds were raised to meet that goal, and we were able to retain nearly all of our families, a seemingly herculean feat. While we are still discerning the full extent of needs that the COVID19 Emergency Relief Fundraising Campaign will be called upon to support, the current estimate falls somewhere between $1.5 and $2 million. Mark and Cindy Kuhn, the campaign’s co-chairs, aim to complete this fundraising effort in the coming year to support a three-year program of related expenditures.

Even as they face difficult health-related decisions for the coming school year, our commitment to support current families has enabled us to maintain healthy enrollment and community retention. While tuition is our greatest revenue source, we also rely on revenue from Extended Learning programs (such as Extended Day and Summer Programs) and on fundraising efforts by our Advancement team each year. Support from our community was extraordinarily strong last year — we met and exceeded our annual giving goal for the year on our March 5 Giving Day — but we anticipate that financial uncertainty may reduce our philanthropic support. And while our Extended Learning team was able to nimbly provide new opportunities for our families and the greater community with Summer Programs 2.0, the income will be far less than a typical year.

Significant costs related to the transition to our continuous learning model, as well as the income loss from summer offerings, the anticipated slowdown in philanthropic support, and our commitment to support our current families, have required us to take measures to sustain our mission-driven educational program and continue to meet the emerging needs of our children. These measures include careful attention to budgeting and applying for and receiving a loan to support staff compensation as a part of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Personnel expenses make up 81% of the School’s operating budget, and this loan not only helps us maintain our excellent staff, but is also forgivable.

Thanks to the work of many, we approach the coming year with a sense of hope and optimism. Our teachers have worked swiftly to improvise and improve educational strategies to best serve our students. Our students have demonstrated extraordinary resiliency. And our parents and caregivers have shown incredible support for us. However, the pandemic is showing itself to be far from over. It is impossible to tell its full future impact on both public health and our economy. Just as the Carolina Friends School community has come together to face past challenges, we know we can count on each of you to see us through this unprecedented moment.

Now Accepting Recurring Donations!

By visiting cfsnc.org/donate, you now have the option for a one-time gift or set up a recurring gift with one click! Donating is a quick, two-screen process.