Sophia Academy Endowment

Keeping Sophia Sustainable

Over its 20+ year history, Sophia Academy has helped over 300 young women forge pathways to a fulfilling future, while also building the resources to ensure the school can continue its transformational work for generations to come.

Thanks to the generosity of Joan and Pablo Sorensen, Sophia Academy established an endowment fund in 2016, and many others have added donations to the fund since then.

Sophia Academy’s endowment supports the core activities and projects that make our school unique, from Farm School to the Civil Rights Trip. It ensures that we can provide our dedicated faculty and staff with professional development opportunities that inspire their work, and compensation and benefits that reward their dedication. It helps us to deepen our impact through family engagement and graduate support. Ultimately, it allows girls from low income families in Providence access to a high quality, challenging academic program that will prepare them to pursue whatever pathway they choose.

How Does Sophia Academy’s Endowment Work?

An endowment is a school's permanent "investment account." It is invested and managed according to policies established by the Board of Trustees, and a portion of the income is used each year to support the operating budget.

The charitable gifts a donor gives create the principal, or corpus, which grows as additional donations or bequests are added. A donor may choose to designate a gift to endowment for a specific purpose, or simply support Sophia Academy’s General Endowment Fund--which allows the school to meet its most critical needs year after year.

The Endowment is invested so that the principal will grow over time. A small portion of the fund's earned income (4%-4.75% of the average value over the trailing 16 quarters) is paid out on an annual basis, and used to operate the school.

How Does Sophia Academy Ensure the Health of Its Endowment?

In 2017, the Board of Trustees voted to transfer its endowed funds to the Rhode Island Foundation. The Foundation has a diversified asset allocation, and its board reviews its spending policy each year to ensure continued growth. Sophia Academy receives an annual payout equivalent to 4-4.75% of the 16 trailing-quarter average value of its portion of the invested funds at the Foundation. The Foundation has set these guidelines to provide a predictable payout while maintaining growth.

Since its establishment, Sophia Academy’s endowment has grown from $380K ($6,351 per student) to $2.13 million today ($34,373 per student). The school seeks to continue to grow it to a minimum value of $77,000 per student, or approximately $4.6 million. This will place Sophia Academy alongside its peers – other small, tuition-free, middle schools. And it will provide a significant annual payout to help sustain our transformational programs and the investment we make in our dedicated and talented faculty and staff.