Why We Launched The Endowment Project Foundation
“Raising Excellence” LinkedIn Newsletter Issue May 15, 2025
For decades, universities and private high schools have developed their alumni for financial support, so why aren’t the nearly 200 million American public high school graduates invited to do the same? Wrestling with this question inspired me to launch The Endowment Project Foundation.
Boston Latin School is a public high school within the Boston Public School system that has raised a $75 million endowment over many decades through annual alumni support and shrewd endowment investing. With this permanent and growing fund, its students and teachers are provided resources that go above and beyond those of a normal public school (college scholarships, new technology, summer programs, international programs, additional teacher compensation opportunities, etc.) While the example of Boston Latin is unique, nothing they are doing is proprietary. At The Endowment Project Foundation, we are bringing the Boston Latin School's incremental and perpetual funding model to every other high school in the United States.
We fundraise directly from alumni, parents, and the community in support of their favorite public high schools. Each school receives its own personalized giving site, and alumni gain a simple, tax-deductible way to give back. Once a school reaches the initial threshold to start an endowment, often with the help of a few leadership gifts, we work with an OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) to invest the funds using the same long-term strategies that colleges and universities rely on. The goal is to create a durable, growing source of support that benefits schools year after year, not just for today, but for generations.
Schools know best where funds are needed, whether that be technology, enrichment programs, technology, the arts, athletics, college advising, or college scholarships. We are here to provide the infrastructure, the connections, and the investment strategy that make it all work.
We are not replacing the public school system, we’re enhancing it just like private schools have done for decades with the support from their caring and capable alumni. We are adding something new and incremental. A parallel path that gives schools long-term resources without relying on the next ballot initiative, federal funding, or district budget cycle.
This newsletter, Raising Excellence, is where we will share that story. You will hear what we are learning, what we are building, and most importantly, how you can be involved in changing the future of your school, your neighborhood school, or public education broadly, one endowment at a time.
— Michael Bor, CEO
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