Funding Opportunities

Country Day Fund

Each year, all members of our community are asked to make a tax-deductible gift to the Country Day Fund. Contributions make an immediate impact in and beyond the classrooms and supplement the essentials our school needs to maintain our small class size, support our outstanding faculty, and enhance our robust programming.

Capital Giving

Capital Giving supports costly improvements to the school’s programs and physical plant. As Country Day continues to renovate and replace 1960’s temporary buildings on the Latham campus with handsome, state-of-the-art classrooms, these contributions are essential.

Country Day Scholars Program

The Country Day Scholars Program provides new incoming ninth-grade students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to access the college preparatory curriculum at Sacramento Country Day High School.

This need-based scholarship program’s goal is to bring to the Country Day High School exceptional students with notable potential in one or more of the following areas: academics, leadership, innovation, the arts, and service.

Donations to the Country Day Scholars Program are accepted year-round in addition to being highlighted during the Fund-a-Need portion of our auction. We are proud and incredibly grateful of our community’s generous support.

Click here for program information.

Click here to support Country Day Scholars.

Endowment and Restricted Giving

Gifts to the Endowment strengthen the financial health and flexibility of Country Day. The Country Day Endowment is comprised of several named endowed funds, some of which were established to honor family members and friends.

Donors may also direct gifts to a particular program, project, or need. If you are interested in restricting your support to any cause not mentioned below, please contact Director of Advancement Rachelle Doyle at 916-481-8811. To make a gift, please click here.

Planned Giving

Planned gifts are gifts made through estate planning. Around 85% of all planned gifts are made by generous donors who leave a specific dollar amount or percentage of their estate to an institution or charity that is meaningful to them. These types of bequests are incredibly powerful and wonderful statements of support. And yet, they do not cost the donor a thing during his or her lifetime.

List of Endowments

General Endowment Funds

General Endowment
- This was the school’s first endowment. Donors recognized a need to invest in the school’s long-term financial sustainability through the creation of an endowment. Gifts to this endowment support the operating budget of Country Day.
Scott Pfaendler 87’ Endowment
- Scott was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease when he was a senior at Country Day in the late 1980s. A Memorial Scholarship fund was established in his honor after he passed in 1995. Before his death, he was very active as an Alumni Representative and highly thought of by all who had the pleasure of knowing him and working with him. Gifts to this endowment support the operating budget of Country Day.

Faculty Endowment Funds

Barbara Ore Endowment for Faculty Development Fund
- When Barbara Ore first retired in 1982 after 10 years at Country Day, the faculty chipped in and bought her a goat. Barbara Ore was persuaded to return to Country Day as interim headmaster in 1983. Barbara Ore’s second retirement was in June 2006. The board of trustees decided they could not let her remarkable service and departure go unnoted. At the headmaster’s dinner in May 2007, Steve Repsher announced the board’s naming of The Barbara MacAuley Ore Faculty Professional Development Fund and described Barbara “as a model lifelong learner, who shared her knowledge with others.” During her years at Country Day, Mrs. Ore worked as a pre-kindergarten assistant, sixth-grade teacher, counselor, director of admissions and development, interim head of school, head of the lower and middle schools, and associate head of school. She also volunteered after her retirement as a trustee and started and led the Grands & Friends association.
Daniel R. Kopf Middle School Faculty Award
- The Daniel R. Kopf Middle School Faculty Award was developed in 2022. The purpose of this endowment is to support the annual recognition of a faculty member in the middle school for having gone above and beyond in demonstrating a commitment to Country Day’s mission and core values. This award was created in honor of parent Daniel R. Kopf by his wife and daughter, Christiana and Eden Kopf, after his passing in January of 2022.
E.E. Ford
- Country Day applied for and won a $50,000 matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation for the building of a faculty salary endowment. From 1991 - 1992, the Foundation required Country Day to raise $50,000 specifically dedicated to the endowment, each dollar then matched from Ford funds. Gifts to the E.E. Ford Endowment are aimed to help break dependence upon tuition for salary funding and improve Country Day faculty’s salaries.

Tuition Assistance Endowment Funds

The Scholars Endowment
- The Country Day Scholars Program provides new incoming ninth-grade students the opportunity to access the curriculum offered at Sacramento Country Day High School. Designed to reach students from underserved communities, the goal of Country Day Scholars is to make our High School accessible to exceptional students with notable potential. Currently Country Day holds annual fundraising events to raise the funds needed to support the Scholars. Gifts to The Scholars Endowment supports the long term fiscal sustainability of support for our Scholars students.
Lifers Endowment
- A Lifer is a student who has spent at least 12 years from pre-school through 12th grade at Country Day. The term Lifer was first established in 1995 when the founding parents established the Lifers’ Scholarship Endowment Fund and congratulated their Lifers with a lunch and a ceremony. Over the years, Lifer parents have continued the tradition of supporting the fund as a lasting way to recognize the achievements of their graduating seniors, and to acknowledge the dedication of their teachers and staff, who have made such achievements possible. The proceeds of the Lifers’ Fund supplement scholarship funds to ensure that other children receive the benefits of a Country Day education.
Elliot Family Fund
TA Scholarship

Other Endowment Funds

Francie Tidey Award

The Francie Tidey Award for Excellence in Education, established in 2001, is an alumni-sponsored faculty award named to honor longtime College Counselor and English Teacher Francie Tidey.

The purpose of the award is to honor a member of the faculty or administration who has made an outstanding contribution to the Sacramento Country Day School community during his or her tenure.

The award was founded as a tribute to those who gave and continue to give so unselfishly to the students at Sacramento Country Day School.

The advisory committee for the Francie Tidey Award will review nominations solicited from persons familiar with the school community and will select the recipient.

To give to the Francie Tidey Award, please click here.

Barbara Lazar Music Award

From 1980 to 2006, Barbara Lazar brought light to the Lower School through her rich and vibrant music program. She nurtured young children to have a love of music and to share their joyfulness for music with others. The award is presented to a student who demonstrates a passion for music and learning, tenacity in practice, performance and growth; who demonstrates musical leadership, shares knowledge and inspires others; and who is cooperative and always willing to help.