A newsletter on Lovett’sStrategic Plan

Issue 1Winter 2009/10

I hope that you enjoy this inaugural issue of Excellence, designed to keep the Lovett family informed of the school’s efforts toward meeting its strategic goals as expressed in Excellence in

Learning, Character & Community: Lovett’s Strategic Plan. It is our hope that this publication and the Lovett website, www.lovett.org, will be your source for keeping up with our progress in three important areas:

• New and enhanced programs;• Physical plant improvements; and• Financial stewardship.

Obviously the nation has been in a very challenging economic environment of late and Lovett, like the rest of our community, is feeling its impact. However, we are fortunate that we continue to make steady progress toward meeting our strategic goals.

There are numerous people to thank for our success in planning, fundraising, and program implementation. You will see many of their names throughout this newsletter and in future Excellence issues. In classic Lovett fashion, teamwork has been fundamental to our success. Thanks to all of our dedicated volunteers, faculty, and staff!

With continued devotion, persistence, and optimism, we’ll continue to make great strides toward achieving Lovett’s ambitious objectives.

Sincerely,

Jo h N r. ho L d e r, Chairman The Lovett School Board of Trustees

The relationship between teacher and student remains at the heart of the school’s mission and the focus of the Strategic Plan.

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To date, Lovett has raised more than $32.5 million toward this effort, but

nearly $1.5 million is still needed to achieve this goal and receive the $6 million gift. Cash and pledges qualify for the challenge, and pledges may be paid over one to five years.

Improving Lovett’s facilities is one of the main priorities of Lovett’s Strategic Plan, Excellence in Learning, Character & Community, along with building Lovett’s endowment and enhancing

overall programming. To realize all of the goals of the Strategic Plan, it could take as much as $125 million. However, our preliminary goal is to raise $70 million: $45 million for construction and facilities and $25 million to increase significantly the school’s endowment to support faculty development, financial aid, and new program initiatives (e.g. academic technology, service learning, and experiential learning).

The Six Million Dollar Challenge

$100 to

$125$0 10 30 40 50 60 70 80 9020

$32.5 millionhas already been raised $6 Million Gift

$100–125 milliontarget amount to fund all of Lovett’s Strategic Plan

Preliminary target amount of $70 million:• $25 million to increase Lovett’s endowment• $45 million for construction and facilities

$1.5 million still needs to be raised to receive the $6 million gift

Jackson Morris

To realize all of the

goals of the Strategic

Plan, it could take as

much as $125 million;

our preliminary goal

is to raise $70 million

by June 30, 2012.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous friend of the school, Lovett will receive a $6 million gift once we have raised $34 million toward the $40 million cost of constructing our new Middle School, athletic facilities, and campus renovations.

Leaders and volunteers rising to the challenge

Three groups of volunteers are leading the initial efforts in bringing Lovett this challenge gift.

The Campaign Executive Committee is led by Lovett trustees Clay Jackson ’77 and Hampton Morris ’69, who are joined by: • Headmaster Billy Peebles; • Trustees Charlie Arp ’62,

John Holder ’73, and Fran Rogers; and

• Advancement Office staff Kimberly Blass, Melissa Calvert, and Andy Spencer.

Rendering of Lovett’s Baseball and Softball Complex

2

continued next page

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Opened to students in August 2009, the new Portman Family Middle School continues the transformation of the campus begun with the construction of the new Upper and Lower

Schools. It provides sixth through eighth grade students with state-of-the-art learning facilities, including classrooms, science labs, a computer lab, art and drama studios, collaborative study rooms, and a 500-seat multipurpose room.

• Three-story, 75,000-square-foot, brick-and-glass building

• Completed on budget ($27.2 million) and on schedule

• Designed to reflect Lovett’s commitment to environmental

stewardship, the building is seeking LEED Gold certification

for sustainable building design from the U.S. Green Building

Council.

Portman Family Middle School Opened Fall 2009

Strategic Plan Progress

The Blair Rackley Green Roof Classrooms showcase native plants and an innovative system for harvesting rainwater for irrigation, and can accommodate up to 150 students. Solar hot water, bamboo flooring, carpet with recycled content, and daylight sensors are some of the many other sustainable features that are part of this new “green” school.

The 2008–09 Leadership Gifts Committee included Lovett trustees, parents, and alumni:• Margaret Moore Chambers ’87• Dan DuPree• Bill Harrison• Deborah Harrison• Jackson Hill• John O. Knox, Jr. ’88• Susan Lamb• Tom Lamb• Robin Loudermilk ’78• Ed McCrady• Carter Pope ’74• Blair Schmidt-Fellner• Terri Schmidt-Fellner• Chris Schoen ’79• Scott Taylor ’84.

In addition, a 2009–10 Leadership Gifts Committee includes Lovett trustees, parents, and alumni:• Julie Bradbury• Tom Bradbury ’92• Freddy Goldenberg• Gregg Goldenberg• Bill Harrison• Deborah Harrison• Jackson Hill• John O. Knox, Jr. ’88• Robin Loudermilk ’78• Ed McCrady• Chris Schoen ’79• Scott Taylor ’84.

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Lovett is pleased and excited to announce the creation of the O. Wayne Rollins Quest for Excellence Grant

Fund, made possible through a very generous $2 million commitment from The O. Wayne Rollins Foundation. The fund is the largest endowment gift in Lovett’s history. It supports the goals and strategies identified in Excellence in Learning, Character & Community: Lovett’s Strategic Plan, and, in particular, the recommendations and goals of the Faculty and Staff Attraction, Development, and Retention Strategic Leadership Team.

The O. Wayne Rollins Quest for Excellence Grant Fund is designed to attract and retain excellent employees by demonstrating the high value placed on consistency and loyalty of service. It will help retain the best employees by providing an incentive and reward for extended service and loyalty to Lovett, and meshes well with the new and developing employee review processes.

Increasing salaries, expanding opportunities for professional development, and maintaining a quality work environment are key components of the strategic plan. The Rollins Fund helps the school address the first of those three strategies.

The Rollins Quest for Excellence Grants will be made to full-time Lovett faculty and staff who reach 10 and 20 years of full-time service to the school. Headmaster Billy Peebles and the board of trustees are incredibly excited by this unique program, which will touch a large number of employees and send a very strong signal of how important the people in this community are. “The Rollins Quest for Excellence Grants represent the kind of innovative and bold thinking and action that Lovett must have to continue its pursuit of excellence,” says Peebles. Lovett board chairman, John Holder, adds, “Strengthening the endowment to support and nurture our faculty and staff is perhaps the single most important area of strategic need.”

In making the gift, The O. Wayne Rollins Foundation writes the following:

The faculty at Lovett are its foundation. All of its students are inspired by those special teachers who motivate them to learn and serve as role models in so many ways. Lovett must compete successfully for the best teachers within an environment of increasing demand for their talent. Lovett must provide unique opportunities to set ourselves apart. We hope that this fund will support special projects so that Lovett can continue to attract, develop, and retain the very best in the classroom.

This newest fund joins more than 25 other endowment funds dedicated to supporting faculty and staff every day. To see a current and complete list of Lovett’s endowment funds, please visit the Lovett website at: http://www.lovett.org/supporting-lovett/endowment/index.aspx.

Lovett’s Largest Endowment Gift Ever Benefits Lovett Faculty and Staff

Each $5,000 in endowment produces $250 in annual proceeds to help faculty and staff.

For example, the following endowment amounts produce the corresponding annual proceeds:

$100,000in endowment

$5,000in annual proceeds

produces

$250,000in endowment

$12,500in annual proceeds

produces

$500,000in endowment

$25,000in annual proceeds

produces

$750,000in endowment

$37,500in annual proceeds

produces

$1,000,000in endowment

$50,000in annual proceeds

produces

$2,000,000in endowment

$100,000in annual proceeds

produces

Endowment (Total $13.6 million)

Faculty/Staff Support $6.7 million

Financial Aid/Scholarships $3.3 million

Unrestricted $1.8 million

Other Funds $1.8 million

Endowment Commitments Since July 1, 2006

Legacy Goals and Progress

(July 1, 2007–June 30, 2009)

Goals Progress

New Gifts 200 23

Face Value

(in millions) $20 $5.5

As Lovett’s philanthropic programs come of age, legacy gifts (planned gifts) must play a key role in the school’s advancement efforts. In the years to come, legacy gifts are expected to be a

major component of the growth in Lovett’s endowment. In independent schools with Lovett’s aspirations, the endowment

should produce at least 10 percent of the school’s operating budget. In today’s dollars, that would be an endowment of about $80 million. Lovett’s endowment currently stands at $40 million. Lovett uses a 5 percent spending rule, and the operating budget in 2009–10 is nearly $40 million.

Legacy gifts have been the driving force behind significant endowments at schools, colleges, and other institutions. Likewise, estate gifts will be very important to Lovett’s endowment growth. In addition to the outright gifts needed to fully realize the goals outlined in the Strategic Plan, Lovett hopes to secure $20 million in legacy gifts through 200 new gifts.

New Legacy Gifts Steering CommitteeTo further this effort, a Legacy Gifts Steering Committee has been

formed. The steering committee will lead efforts to enhance the visibility and understanding of legacy gifts and thereby increase participation in The Eva Edwards Lovett Legacy Society. The Legacy Society recognizes those who invest in the school’s future by making a legacy gift, which includes bequests, charitable trusts, charitable gift annuities, life insurance, retirement plans, and certain real estate gifts. The Legacy Gifts Steering Committee’s goals are as follows:

1. Establish a philanthropic culture that places an extremely high value on legacy gifts;

2. SignificantlyincreasethenumberofdocumentedlegacygiftstoLovett; and

3. Provide ongoing education and access to information for Lovett constituents who seek to learn about legacy giving.

The Legacy Gifts Steering Committee is led by Lovett parents Bailey Izard ’81 and Tom Reynolds, and in 2008–09 included Lovett trustees, parents, and alumni:

Ansley Merritt Conner ’83 Sallie Adams Daniel ’68 Dick Denny

The Eva Edwards Lovett Legacy SocietyThe Eva Edwards Lovett Legacy Society allows the Lovett

community to acknowledge, honor, and thank those special donors as their gifts are created. To see the full list of the members of The Eva Edwards Lovett Legacy Society, please visit www.lovett.org/plannedgiving. Legacy giving need not be complicated and it often allows donors to make larger gifts than might otherwise be possible. It may also provide opportunities for individuals to increase their incomes and receive tax advantages, while supporting Lovett.

The ideal endowment size for a school such as Lovett is one that produces 10 percent of the school’s annual operating budget. In today’s dollars, that would be an endowment of about $80 million. Lovett’s endowment currently stands at $40 million.

Legacy Gifts Key to Endowment Growth

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Izard Reynolds

David Fosgate ’92Marshall Sanders ’77 Woody Vaughan ’86

Legacy Goals and Progress

(July 1, 2007–June 30, 2009)

Goals Progress

New Gifts 200 23

Face Value

(in millions) $20 $5.5

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Sallie Adams Daniel ’68 is truly a model Lovett alumna, having served the school

in a number of ways. Currently a member of The Lovett School Board of Trustees and the Legacy Gifts Steering Committee, she is also a past president of the Alumni Association (1990–91) and served as the 1968 class representative for 20 years. Sallie was also chair of the Community Life Strategic Leadership Team, which helped in developing the school’s current strategic plan. She also put in many hours during the formative years of Breakthrough Atlanta, then known as Summerbridge Atlanta, when she served as its inaugural board chair.

Outside of Lovett and after a distinguished career in the banking industry, Sallie is now the chief development and diversity officer at Troutman Sanders, a major law firm.

Philanthropy with purposeIn keeping with her model of

active leadership, Sallie made a planned gift to Lovett in 1987 when she named Lovett as a beneficiary in her will, which helps lower the value of her estate. In 2001, as

part of the 75th Anniversary Campaign, Sallie added a $100,000 life insurance policy to her Lovett legacy. Sallie’s plans also include a fund at The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and a charitable remainder trust to ultimately benefit Lovett and other nonprofits that are close to her heart.

A legacy of vision and leadershipUsing multiple vehicles and designing a plan to benefit Lovett

and other charities, Sallie is being very strategic and tax-wise. The annual life insurance premiums are tax-deductible and the inclusion of Lovett, The Community Foundation, and other tax-exempt entities in her will and estate plans will reduce taxes on her estate. Sallie’s simple but effective plans will help maintain, in perpetuity, many of the organizations for which she has labored so long and so effectively and it will allow her legacy of service to live on.

Sallie Adams Daniel ’68

Making a Difference at Lovett, Now and For the Future

Using multiple vehicles

and designing a plan

to benefit Lovett and

other charities, Sallie is

being very strategic and

tax-wise.

In 2006, Excellence in Learning, Character & Community: Lovett’s Strategic Plan, was completed, providing a comprehensive,five-yearblueprint for Lovett. The plan—two years in the making—charts an exciting future for the Lovett community, and looks intently at the areas upon which the school could and should improve. The Strategic Plan will challenge us to pursue excellence and leadership in all aspects of school life as we aim to be the best Lovett that we can be.

Lovett’s Strategic Plan calls upon us to make significant investments in support of our people, philosophy, and program in the coming years. These investments will serve to strengthen the resources we provide our faculty and students; will help us seek and retain the very best teachers and staff; will bolster our efforts to continue attracting outstanding students; and will enhance the quality of our facilities.

Daniel

Fran RogersParent, Trustee, Campaign Executive Committee member, and Leadership

donor

“Lovett excellence is preparing our students for the jobs that don’t yet exist, where they will use technology that hasn’t yet been invented. Support of the Strategic Plan, with its strong emphasis on faculty, technology, facilities, and the whole child, is critical in pursuit of Lovett excellence.”

Mike McIntyre ’83Parent, Trustee, and Leadership

donor

“I experience Lovett’s excellence on many levels and

from several vantage points. To my wife, Emily, and me, the foundation of an excellent school begins with its faculty and staff and extends outward. We chose to make a gift to the endowment to support the attraction, development and retention of the best possible faculty and staff. It is our hope that other Lovett families will join us and support an area about which they are passionate.”

David Kahn ’81

Parent and

Leadership donor

“We feel very fortunate to be part of a school community that

prioritizes individual development, while emphasizing values, ethics, and personal character. Lovett’s excellence is grounded in its talented and passionate leadership and faculty members who are fully committed to the school’s vision and each and every child.”

The Strategic Plan Steering Committee has reconvened to examine the plan’s progress to date. The committee will focus specifically on:

• Providing an updated financial model;

• Recognizing the growing role

and importance of environmental

sustainability;

• Strengthening Lovett’s culture of

respect and honor;

• Increasing the diversity of both our

faculty and student body; and

• Constantly improving our academic

program.

The committee met in May 2009 to discuss any needed revisions and updates to the Plan, and presented these recommendations to Lovett’s Board of Trustees in November of 2009.

Trustee Bill Rogers leads the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, and is joined by:

• Trustees Bill Fox, Jeff Hines, and Bet Pope ’79;

• Lovett headmaster Billy Peebles; • Director of strategic communications

Kimberly Blass; • Technology consultant and Lovett parent

Laura Deisley; and • Academic dean Randy Murphy.

Many initiatives of the Strategic Plan have already been implemented. Some highlights include:

• The new Middle School, which opened for the 2009–10 school year;

• 17 new endowment funds to benefit students, faculty, and staff;

• A management diversity workshop for staff; and

• A laptop program in the Lower School (which expanded to the Middle School in 2009–10).

Please visit the Lovett website for further details: http://www.lovett.org/who-we-are/strategic-plan/index.aspx.

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www.lovett.org

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Strategic Plan Fundraising ProgressPreliminary Goal: $70 million*

Excel

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• Faculty

Support and Development

• Financial Aid

• New Program Initiatives

Includes • Portman

Family Middle School

• Baseball and Softball Complex

• Multipurpose Field

• Campus Renovations (Academic Resource Center, Noonan Technology Center, Fine Arts spaces, and administrative and Breakthrough Atlanta office space).

EndowmentPreliminary Goal:

$25 Million

Progress to date:$13.6 million

Facilities/Unrestricted Preliminary Goal:

$45 Million

Progress to date:$32.5 million

* Completely funding Excellence in Learning, Character & Community could take as much as $125 million.