• Arts Statue
Support SHS

Endowment & Impact Giving

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat

"Great hearts, generous hearts, are required in the family of God's heart, because the difficulties in the way of doing good increase day by day."
A thriving endowment is essential to the future of Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton (SHS). While the endowment is healthy, it is still not adequate to meet the annual needs of our students. It is imperative that we grow and nurture the endowment to ensure that SHS’s potential for educating the whole child is never limited by lack of resources. SHS is rich in all the ways that count: in the extraordinary talent of its faculty and students, in the strength and vitality of its community, in the enduring loyalty of its grateful alumni and generous friends and donors. Your gift to the SHS endowment will ensure that this world class educational experience is available for generations to come.

Institutional Priorites

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  • Institutional Priorities

    A strong endowment provides a consistent and stable revenue source that supports:
     
    • The Educating for a Lifetime Campaign (unrestricted gifts)
    • Tuition Assistance to all qualified students
    • Faculty Compensation & Professional Development 
    • Athletics that continue the Gator Nation tradition of excellence
    • Service Learning to ensure SHS will always deliver on the promise to educate the whole child, in service of others
    • Visual and Performing Arts that make state-of-the-art tools available to students, faculty, and staff

    Gifts of any size can also be applied to the General Endowment, allowing the most flexibility to meet current needs. To establish a named endowment fund, a minimum gift commitment of $100,000 is required.

Educational Access Initiatives

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  • Sophie's Scholars Program

    Created to both build a broad student population that will deepen the educational experience within the SHS classrooms and community, and to ensure and support student access and success through high school and beyond, the Sophie's Scholars Program (SSP) is an initiative composed of three main parts: the Middle School Cohort, attendance at SHP and college program.
  • Barat College Access Fund (BCAF)

    Awarded to select SHP students who have met program pre-requisites but who may not otherwise be able to enroll at college due to limited resources, recipients of the Barat College Access Fund are given financial assistance to supplement traditional college financial aid programs, in order to meet tuition and other related college costs and significantly limit—or eliminate—the burden of student and family loans.

Endowment Opportunities

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  • Faculty & Teaching Support

    Attracting and retaining talented faculty is critical to SHS’s long-term success. Donors can directly support SHS’s world-class faculty and staff through giving to the endowment. 
     
    Department Chair - $1,500,000
    Honors and recognizes extraordinary senior faculty members, appointed by the Director of Schools and Principals, who are important scholars in their fields and teachers who contribute greatly to the intellectual teaching and development of students.

    Junior Chair - $500,000
    Attracting young talented faculty is critical to the school’s long-term success in building a great team of educators. Establishes a public position of honor, appointed by the Director of Schools and Principals, to an early to mid-career faculty or staff member for outstanding accomplishment in his or her discipline.

    Named Faculty Endowment Fund - $100,000
    These funds encourage lifelong learning by enabling faculty and staff to pursue advanced degrees, attend seminars and conferences, and seize travel-study opportunities during the summer.
  • Student Scholarships

    Sacred Heart Schools Atherton’s Tuition Assistance Program, which provides tuition relief to academically qualified students, is dependent upon support from its endowment.  SHS needs to continue to “grow” this endowment program to keep pace with escalating operating and tuition costs and to increase the total amount of assistance distributed each year.
     
    You can make an impact on Sacred Heart Schools Atherton’s tuition assistance program by creating a restricted fund for student financial assistance:
     
    Named Scholar Endowment - $1,000,000
    This fund endows the equivalent of a full tuition for one student in perpetuity.
     
    Named General Scholarship - $100,000
    Named in honor of your family or honoree of your choice, a minimum gift of $100,000 is required to establish an individual scholarship.
  • Academic Program & Facilities Support

    Sacred Heart Excellence Endowments are funds created in partnership with our donors that are aligned with the Goals and Criteria of a Sacred Heart education. These funds can support a wide variety of programs and facilities.

    Goal I: A personal and active faith in God
    Sacred Heart Heritage Fund(s) $100,000 - Preserve the history and traditions of the RSCJ by funding programs that support the formation of students, faculty, staff and parents in alignment with the mission of the Schools.

    Goal II: A deep respect for intellectual values
    Programmatic Fund(s) $100,000 - Funds foster excellence and innovation in the curriculum. Funds can also support programs that enhance student success

    Technology Fund(s) $100,000 - Funds support the maintenance, upgrade, development, and effective utilization of technological resources.

    Speakers Series Fund(s) $100,000 - Underwrites the fee and related expenses for a speaker or visiting lecturer.

    Teaching Innovation Fund(s) $100,000 - Finances the continued integration of technology and information literacy into curriculum.

    Global Perspectives Fund(s) $100,000 - Supports faculty, staff and students to gain international perspectives and cultural knowledge through international educational and research trips.

    Goal III: A social awareness that impels to action
    SHS Green Fund(s) $100,000 - Funds support the maintenance, upgrade, development, and effective utilization of environmentally friendly resources and uses on the SHS campus.

    Buildings and Grounds Fund(s) $100,000 - Funds support the maintenance and preservation of the SHS campus and facilities.

    Goal IV: The building of community as a Christian value
    SHS Athletic Excellence Fund(s) $100,000 - Underwrites general athletic programs, including coaching salaries, equipment, and transportation.

    Student Life Fund(s) $100,000 - Provide support to enhance student life activities on campus.

    Goal V: Personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom
    Professional Development Fund(s) $100,000 - Fund faculty and staff development initiatives, including independent research, advanced graduate study, sabbaticals and conference attendance.

    Library and Resource Fund(s) $100,000 - Provides support for the ongoing support of library facilities and special collections. Enables the purchase and maintenance of books, maps, and electronic resources.

    Prize Fund(s) $100,000 - Underwrites existing awards or prizes given to members of the SHS School community in recognition of outstanding accomplishment.

To learn more about our institutional priorities and critical fundraising needs, please contact

List of 1 members.

  • Photo of Lauren Whittam

    Lauren Whittam 

    Chief Advancement Officer

Sacred Heart Schools Atherton

Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton

150 Valparaiso Ave
Atherton, CA 94027
650 322 1866
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12