A few weeks ago, new signs studded with phrases such as “Be Fearless,” “Be Ready,” and “The Future Is Baldwin” appeared around campus. This is a part of Baldwin’s recent  “The Future Is Baldwin” campaign, a 25 million dollar fundraiser.

According to the Baldwin website, the newly-raised money is to be allocated to five areas: 

$2.5 million each for the Be Ready and Be Visionary initiatives; the first aims to fund the new Innovation Center and the second to “invest in [the faculty’s] strengths and skills.”

The Be Fearless initiative aims to raise $6 million for “enriching teaching and curriculum.” Be There has the same aim but is focused instead on the endowment. 

Finally, a goal of $8 million in the Be Resilient campaign would boost the Baldwin Fund. 

Laura Armstrong, the school’s Chief Director of Development, said Baldwin decided to launch the new campaign “to address strategic needs for the school now and into the future.”

But why does Baldwin need 25 million dollars?  

According to IRS tax filings on ProPublica, in 2019, Baldwin made around $2.9 million in donations, or 12% of the school’s total revenue. The donation fits in with other schools like all-girls schools, such as Agnes Irwin ($3.7 million). 

However, the key to understanding Baldwin’s donation is not how it compares to AIS, but how it compares to co-ed or all-boys schools. One study in the UK by ToucanTech found that all-boys schools have four times more donations than all-girls schools, and according to a study at Indiana University, parents are more likely to donate to their sons’ schools than their daughters’. In addition, female alumni are less likely to donate to their alma maters than male alumni, likely due to the gender wage gap.

 According to ProPublica data, the all-boys Haverford School, considered to be the “brother school” to Baldwin and AIS, received $9.6 million in donations in 2019, over three times more than Baldwin that year. 

The endowments of the schools further emphasize the sharp discrepancies between all boys and all girls’ schools. In spring 2021, Haverford had $90.2 million in its endowment, and its current “Character At Our Core” Campaign has already raised more than $50 million. Baldwin’s endowment only had $18 million.

Besides other all-girls schools, Baldwin is lagging far behind in donations, endowment, and financial aid funds in regards to other secondary schools. Knowing this , $25 million no longer seems unreasonable– in fact, it is overdue and necessary to keep Baldwin at the top of schools, not only on the Main Line, but also in the states and country.