The Annual Fund

What is the Annual Fund all about?
Each year we ask our parents, grandparents, alumni and alumni parents to make a gift to the Annual Fund. The Annual Fund for MSR makes up 4% of the school’s operating revenue. An Annual Fund for any institution makes up the difference in tuition revenue and the annual expenses of the school.

What is MSR’s Annual Fund all about?
MSR’s Annual Fund is all about: the difference between a good faculty and a gifted faculty, the difference between a dusty lesson plan and innovative instruction; the difference between passive students and active learners, the difference between a class where children fall to the lowest common denominator of diminished expectations and an engaging environment that reaches out to the possibilities of each child.

What is the 2009-2010 Annual Fund all about?
MSR 2009-2010 Annual Fund supported over 20 faculty that attended workshops, conferences and additional Montessori training. The Annual Fund supported athletic teams as we enjoyed our second season of boys' and girls' basketball, and our first season of girls' volleyball and soccer and boys' soccer. The Annual Fund, as always, supports financial aid as well as covering additional improvements to all outdoor environments.

Why not charge the full amount of a child’s education and not have an Annual Fund?
The Annual Fund is just one of the ways we strive to ensure MSR’s mission of maintaining economic diversity. By keeping tuition increases just slightly above the inflation rate each year we hope to keep a Montessori education affordable for a broader range of students. It is important that those that can give do give to make this a reality for our community.

Additionally, the Annual Fund establishes relationships with donors. High parent participation signals to foundations that its parents are vested in the school and increases MSR’s chances of receiving outside funding. There is no gift too large or too small—all gifts count.

Everything in the classrooms — from the teachers to the materials — is deliberately designed and set out in a way to meet their needs at that time.