May 2024 Giving Month

Donate Today!

100% of your donation supports our students. You allow an exceptional curiosity-driven education to be accessible to all.

Our Goal by May 31

Current Donations since May 1

Together, we can change the landscape of education.

Join us through May 31 as we celebrate our school and help support our programs, people, and mission. Your tax-deductible contributions empower us to make a curiosity-driven education accessible to all. Every donor makes a powerful impact towards the more than $800,000 in financial aid support that we provide to our more than 67 students each year.

We are grateful for your help in making an exceptional education possible for every student at our school. All donors are widely recognized online, unless you elect to make an anonymous gift. Any and all gifts to Slate School are welcome and appreciated. Our goal is 100% participation in our Slate School community. We ask that everyone contribute by making the gift that is meaningful for their particular financial situation. Slate School is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

Why Giving Matters

Slate School's Giving Day Campaign helps us to continue our commitment to need-blind admissions and to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need. We are proud that more than 80% of our students receive significant financial aid, and 50% pay less than $6,000/year in tuition. While we are still the only elementary and the only K-12 independent school in the country that admits students without first reviewing their ability to pay, and also meets 100% of their demonstrated financial need, we are hoping that more schools will follow our lead. Through our hard work behind the scenes on grant writing, donations, and May Giving Month, we are demonstrating a model that independent schools can be affordable and accessible to all. During the past year alone, we’ve distributed more than $800,000 in scholarships to more than 80% of our students. Our tuition covers only 39% of our operating budget (in contrast to the typical 90% tuition-driven revenue model for independent schools), and your donations are a huge help.

Slate School appreciates our network of passionate parents, grandparents, and friends, and their commitment to help us all reach our full potential and achieve our vision and mission. Independent schools do not receive government or public funding, and revenue comes from tuition and from contributions from parents, grandparents, and friends to support operating expenses.

Slate School continues to grow in our student population, and our financial aid commitments continue to increase. As our financial responsibility grows, Slate School – like other independent schools – turns to parents, grandparents, relatives, faculty, community members, and other friends of the school to bridge the tuition gap. Please join us and invite others into a philanthropic partnership with Slate School.

Donations Make an Impact

As the only K-12 independent school in the country to provide need-blind admissions and meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all of our students, our tuition gap is much larger than most. More than 80% of our students receive significant financial aid, with 50% paying less than $6,000 in tuition. The average financial aid scholarship per child is $18,000. We currently have 67 students and are growing to 85 next year.

2024 May Giving Month Sponsors

Champion Sponsors
($20,000+)

  • Anonymous ($100,000)

Gold Sponsors
($5,000+)

  • Gilbane Building Company ($5,000)

  • M&T Bank ($5,000)

  • Performance Plumbing & Heating ($5,000)

  • Camputaro ($5,000)

  • Patriquin Architects ($5,000)

  • Eco Windows & Facades ($5,000)

Silver Sponsors
($2,000+)

  • Errigal Construction ($4,000)

  • Lin R. Rogers Electrical Contractors ($2,500)

  • Charlotte Roseman Memorial Fund ($2,000)

Bronze Sponsors
($1,000+)

  • Centerline Interiors ($1,500)

  • Albertus Magnus College ($1,000)

  • Quinnipiac University ($1,000)

  • A+ Landscaping ($1,000)

  • GT Landscape and Excavation ($1,000)

  • Quality Mechanical ($1,000)

Our Annual Costs

Project and other learning resources

  • Books to support every child's curiosity-driven projects during 4-5 project cycles each year

  • Materials, manipulatives, and books to support curiosity-driven learning

Educator salaries, benefits, and professional development

  • Ample staff to allow for small class sizes

  • Support for exceptional educators

Property maintenance and management

  • Maintenance of an organic landscape with no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, including manual removal of invasive weeds and poison ivy, and removal of snow and ice without chemical road salt

  • Tick control with nontoxic cedar oil throughout the 24 acres of meadows and the Piney Woods

  • Maintenance of healthy buildings and mechanical systems focused on excellent indoor air quality

  • Purchase of nontoxic furniture

Giving Month Sponsors

We are so grateful for the support of our Giving Month Sponsors, who donate tax-deductible contributions that empower us to make a curiosity-driven education accessible to all.

The work that we do benefits greatly from your support. While other independent schools typically have 90% of their operating expenses covered by tuition, at Slate School, only 39% of our operating budget is covered by tuition, with the remaining 61% coming from grants as well as donations from organizations and companies.

Our Giving Month Sponsors are publicized widely between now and the end of our Giving Month in May to our broad audience of more than 10,000 social media followers, families, friends, and e-newsletter recipients of Slate School. 

Please join us today by calling or e-mailing Kelly Campanelli at kcampanelli@slateschool.org or 203-872-5900.

2024 Giving Month Sponsors

How Sponsorship Works

Together, we are changing the landscape of education. As an independent school where more than 80% of our students receive significant financial aid, most of our families are not able to contribute large gifts to our school. Additionally, as a young school that just opened in 2018, we do not yet have alumni. These realities make our Giving Month sponsors even more essential. We are so grateful to our Giving Month Sponsors whose donations and contributions are unlocked as our families, friends, and other community members contribute donations to Slate School of any amount. For example, in 2023, a challenge gift of $100,000 was unlocked as soon as Slate School received 250 donations of any size. Another donor contributed a Challenge Gift of $1,000 when 48 donations were received within a 48 hour period. There are many similar challenge gifts that occur throughout the month of May.

In totality, May Giving Month raised $140,000 from more than 270 donors in 2023! We’re grateful to everyone who contributed, and we’re looking forward to raising even more to support our students in 2024!

We Love Slate School

Your donation makes an impact!

Your gift helps to bridge the gap between the tuition raised and the actual cost of a Slate School education. Please share this page to invite your family and friends to join our mission of changing the landscape of education.