2004-05 Annual Giving Fund success allows Exeter to purchase houses

August 2005

The 2004-05 fiscal year marked a banner year for the Annual Giving Fund and a strong start for The Exeter Initiatives. For the 21st year in a row, the fund received support from 50 percent or more of alumni/ae, a record that few schools can claim. Alumni/ae gifts combined with gifts from parents, grandparents and friends reached a total of $6,949,847, a significant increase over the fund’s goal and the previous year’s total. This increase represents an important step toward fulfilling the first priority of The Exeter Initiatives: to permanently increase the size of the Annual Giving Fund, ensuring Exeter’s ability to remain flexible and responsive to the community’s highest needs.

The strong 2004-05 Annual Giving Fund, in addition to providing 10 percent of the operating budget, enabled the Academy to purchase two homes in town for use as faculty housing, bringing the school closer to its goal of housing 85 percent of the faculty on or near campus and thus readily accessible to students. In the face of an ever-climbing real estate market in Exeter, addressing the shortage of post-dormitory faculty housing through the Community Housing Initiative is an important part of sustaining the close student-teacher relationships that set Exeter apart from other schools.

The Annual Giving Fund grows one donor at a time, and its success as a reliable source of unrestricted funds depends on the generosity of those who give year after year. Exeter is grateful to all who responded to last year’s Annual Giving Fund campaign, and to the many volunteers who work so hard to make that success possible.

Go to the 2004-05 Report of Giving

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