Tuition provides us with what we need to be great.
PHILANTHROPY makes us EXTRAORDINARY.
“Why should I donate when I already pay tuition?”
Like all independent schools, Collegiate relies on philanthropy to provide support to the teachers who make our school exceptional. Donations to Collegiate provide critical resources that ensure we offer our students:
Talented teachers
Small classes
Interdisciplinary units
Character development
Richness of extracurricular activities
Outstanding fine arts instruction
Thriving athletic teams
Well maintained facilities
Special Traditions like Picnic Buddy Day, After Prom, and more!
In addition, your donations foster the community we hold dear and the culture of generosity essential to our Spartan identity.
FUND for COLLEGIATE:
Our unrestricted annual fund
Our annual fundraising efforts, running every day from June 1 to May 31 each year, are the lifeblood of the Fund for Collegiate. Our Day of Giving, recent Spartan Bashes, and Marketing Sponsorships all facilitate its funding. These unrestricted dollars allow our school to work directly with each division to determine and deploy investments ensuring our school remains a world-class institution.
Funds raised throughout the school year are allocated the following summer towards:
Teacher Wish Lists
Professional Development
Classroom Enhancements
Health & Wellness Support
Elevating the Arts & Athletics
Class Retreats & Activities
Campus Security
Securing the Future - Rainy Day Fund & Endowment
Your donations to the FUND for COLLEGIATE
tell us you BELIEVE in our mission.
Annual fund gifts enable WCS to be nimble and proactive, allowing us to swiftly address emergent needs and opportunities. They indicate that you care deeply about the education we are providing today and its vital role in Wichita.
Recent campus wide impact
96% of Teacher Wish List requests toward improvements and enhancements funded • $70,000 granted to Professional Development • $175,000 allocated to Facilities Improvement • Rainy Day Fund (PPRRSM) and Endowment augmented by $337,918 • Classroom improvements, furniture, books, printers, AV equipment, and supplies across all divisions • LEGO Spike kits & Breakout EDU for Cleveland Family Maker Space • Leadership Academy and Community Impact enrichment • STEM materials, manipulatives, and light tables • Baseball backstop rebuild and automated Fungoman machine • All new Upper School Commons tables • Playground upgrades & maintenance • Woodshop work tables, microjig clamps, and safety improvements • MS Wellness Wednesday: Paint the Town & Silent Disco • Meals for our traveling athletes • 2 Sousaphones for the Marching Spartans • 7th/8th grade PE Train a Teacher program • MS PE field trip • Cheerleader pom poms & crash mat • 2 HiDow TENS/EMS muscle therapy units • College Admissions visit hosting • STEM, Green Team & Garden Projects • Tinker Time Materials • USA Flags in every LS classroom • Senior Class Activities • And much more. . .
CAPITAL GIVING: Enhancing our children’s
spaces
We have a beautiful, but aging, campus. Donations to renovate our spaces ensure our current and future students have safe, clean, and updated learning spaces. Most schools conduct a full capital campaign once or twice per decade that involve significant renovations, new buildings, or endowment expansions.
Collegiate’s last full capital campaign ended in 2012. Contingent upon the results of our next strategic planning period, we hope to embark upon a new capital campaign that would bring identified initiatives to life.
While not in a full capital campaign, Collegiate focuses on smaller capital projects approved by the Board of Trustees which address immediate, specific needs, such as repurposing or renovation of campus facilities. A few recent examples of smaller capital projects are the creation of the Alumni Association Innovation Lab and the Mitch Fiegel Court renovation.
LEADERSHIP GIVING:
Providing critical momentum
Leadership gifts are significant donations made by generous individuals in our community, often given in the hopes of encouraging further Spartan philanthropy toward the Fund for Collegiate or a capital campaign.
Often it takes a few great leadership gifts to give every campaign the momentum it needs to get off the ground and succeed.
Our Board of Trustees, for example, graciously seeds our fundraising efforts each year by making their pledges early on. Their gifts made ahead of our Day of Giving highlight the worthiness of our annual fundraising cause.
ENDOWMENT:
Thriving in perpetuity
Endowment gifts are made with great faith in our past, present, and future. They are given in support of our school’s long-term institutional integrity and help fund Collegiate’s proud tradition of educational excellence indefinitely. Major investments in our Endowment relieve pressure on our operating budget and provide sustained long term support. Our fiscal policy ensures that our Endowment principal remains intact as the school spends only a percentage of the interest income annually.
Collegiate has four main endowment categories:
• GENERAL OPERATIONS
• INDEXED TUITION - Multiple named endowments which support financial assistance
• PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - Multiple named endowments which support specific areas of study
• SPECIALIZED - Funding towards specific programs, approved by the Board of Trustees
If you are considering a six or seven figure gift to support Collegiate, creating an endowment would establish your legacy to the school in perpetuity.
PLANNED GIVING:
The 1963 Society
Remembering Collegiate in your estate plan is yet another profound way to leave a legacy that would positively impact future Spartans. Having the foresight to support our students in this way ensures your commitment to this community is felt beyond your lifetime. Most planned gifts support either our WCS General Endowment Fund (Board Designated) or our WCS Alumni Endowment Fund (for Indexed Tuition).
For many donors, remembering Collegiate in their estate is the ultimate expression of their gratitude to the teachers, coaches, and entire community for the education we provide.
Our 1963 Society is our listing of those who have informed Collegiate that we are named in their estate. These donors often tell us they feel a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that, even after they are gone, Wichita’s children will continue to have the opportunity to receive a world-class education.
“What’s the difference between an unrestricted gift, a restricted gift, and a gift-in-kind?”
GIFTS OF EVERY KIND MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Understanding the distinction between restricted and unrestricted donations helps donors make informed decisions about how they wish to support Collegiate’s mission and operations.
Unrestricted donations are directed to our Fund for Collegiate, and they allow WCS to invest the funds where we need them most. These donations are deployed across the entire campus annually, and every single student at our school benefits from this funding. The majority of our donors show their love and trust of the school as a whole by supporting the Fund for Collegiate year after year.
Some donors choose to make additional donations to Collegiate that impact specific programs, renovations, or initiatives. These are referred to as restricted donations, which means the school can only use them for the agreedupon purpose. Donors who want to impact a specific aspect of the school work with WCS Development to ensure the donation is in line with the school’s mission and strategic plan.
Gifts-in-kind are gifts of items. These are often given as auction items for an event or when a parent purchases specific items for a team or classroom. These are not listed as cash donations to the school. Donors work with WCS Development to make sure the item they wish to give is something the school is able to accept.
GIFTS OF EVERY SIZE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
* Blue & Gold level and above are invited to our major donor celebration event at the end of the year.
NO MATTER HOW YOU CHOOSE TO SUPPORT US ...
The Fund for Collegiate Capital Giving Leadership Giving Our Endowment Planned Giving
YOU are what makes us
EXTRAORDINARY.
COMPLETETHE WCS EXPERIENCE
We invite every Spartan family to support the WCS experience in the way that speaks to them
COLLEGIATE:
Our Culture of Generosity
We invite you to be part of something truly extraordinary - the donors behind-the-scenes who ensure our teachers, coaches, and staff have all they need to provide a world-class education. By investing in Collegiate, you’re not just giving a donation - you’re creating opportunities now which will ripple through time and benefit generations to come.
Whether you’ve been a Collegiate donor for years or are considering joining this Spartan vanguard for the first time, your contributions matter. Your generosity fuels our school, sets an example to our students, and shapes a brighter future for our community and even the world as our graduates go forth to lead lives of impact.
