How Endowment Works
Endowment gifts are invested, and only a portion of the earnings is spent each year. This ensures long-term financial strength and stability for generations of students. Donors can create or contribute to funds supporting a wide range of school priorities. When you establish an endowment or contribute to an existing endowment, you are making an everlasting gift in support of our students, faculty, and programs.
The Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees works closely with investment managers to ensure both growth and expenditures, with investment earnings distributed annually in perpetuity. Establishing a new endowed fund at Santa Catalina School begins with a minimum investment of $250,000. Endowed funds are invested in perpetuity, and a portion of the annual earnings provides sustained support for the program or purpose designated by the donor.
Endowment Giving Opportunities
Since 1950, Santa Catalina has aimed to educate talented students regardless of their ability to pay full tuition. Our commitment to financial aid ensures that our community represents the greater world in which our graduates will study, work, and live. With your help, we can continue to provide all students access to a full Santa Catalina experience.
Ask any graduate what they value most about Santa Catalina, and the answer is inevitably “the teachers.” Santa Catalina is committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining excellent faculty. When you invest in the endowment, you help us achieve that goal.
Programs lie at the intersection of excellent teachers and student success. It is how we impart learning to our students and strengthen relationships within our community. A well-resourced program ensures that Santa Catalina holds firm to the values, traditions, and standards that make our school the great institution we know and love, while enabling the leadership to adopt innovations in education and adapt to changes in the marketplace of ideas.
This endowment was established in 2016 to honor Sister Claire and Sister Christine and their over five decades of service to Santa Catalina School. It supports an initiative that is near and dear to the Sisters' hearts: positive growth of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual person, including that of students, faculty, and staff through teaching skills and lifelong practices that promote healthy, joyful living.
The Sister Carlotta Financial Aid Endowment was established in 2023 in honor of Sister Carlotta O’Donnell, Santa Catalina’s second Head of School who was committed to ensuring all students reach their full potential by taking advantage of everything that Santa Catalina has to offer. Providing families with the financial support they need remains among the school’s highest priorities.
Established in 2024, The Christy and Mark Pollacci Financial Aid Endowment for Lower and Middle School celebrates the Pollaccis’ enduring commitment to the school community. Honoring Christy’s dedication of 33 years to young learners in the Lower and Middle School, and Mark’s spirited support as a volunteer and booster, their shared values will continue to shape and uplift future generations of Santa Catalina students, ensuring access to the vibrant learning environment that is Santa Catalina Lower and Middle School.
Various Upper School classes have created endowments to honor their classes’ legacies in support of the future of Santa Catalina School. The classes with established endowments include The Sister Mary Kieran Scholarship Endowment established by the 1950s Graduates, the Class of 1960, the Class of 1961, and the Class of 1974.