Message from New Campaign Chair Shelly Nemirovsky

Stepping into a leadership position at this point in the Opening Minds Campaign, I am grateful for the hard work of trustee and former Campaign Chair Gary Gut in launching the Campaign. Now it is my responsibility to continue to educate our community about the urgency with which we still need to raise the remaining $12 million to achieve our Campaign goals.  

People can easily see the new building on the Upper School Campus and understand why we needed it; both faculty and students are thrilled with the new space.   What is more difficult to convey is the equally important need to generate a healthy endowment to support both faculty and financial aid. 

With an endowment of just over $50 million, we cannot begin to compete with the more than $200 million endowments of some of our peer schools.  An insufficient endowment leaves us heavily reliant on our ever-rising annual tuition and puts us at risk of losing wonderful families who simply cannot keep up with the high cost of a BB&N education.  Likewise, we are at risk of losing dedicated faculty to other schools if we do not grow our endowment to meet their needs.

The good news is that BB&N is home to some of the most accomplished and multi-talented students and faculty in the nation.  We know that to maintain that distinction, we must raise significant funds to meet the needs of our community, through both the Annual Fund which supports our current operating budget and gifts to support the Campaign’s endowment priorities to meet our longer term objectives.  We hope you will welcome our call and respond enthusiastically!  

Shelly Nemirovsky P’16,’17,’19
Trustee and Chair, Opening Minds Campaign