Support for Groton School’s GRAIN affordability and inclusion initiative breaks $100 million mark

Fundraising support for Groton School’s GRoton Affordability and INclusion initiative—better known as GRAIN—broke the $100 million mark just minutes before a special dinner held April 25 to celebrate its ten-year anniversary, bringing the school’s total fundraising since 2014 to more than $220 million. 

The $2 million donation that pushed GRAIN fundraising over this historic mark was made by an anonymous donor family with long and generous ties to the initiative. In November 2014, they made the original $5 million “parking lot” commitment that launched the GRAIN movement. Then, in December 2018, their $1.7 million gift brought GRAIN to its initial $50 million goal, generating great excitement and producing critical momentum that has spurred the initiative onward. This past Christmas, they donated another $2 million to support Groton’s announcement that tuition will now be free to students whose family income is $150,000 or less.

“At 5:32 p.m., we received the delta gift that got us to $100 million,” Headmaster Temba Maqubela told the assembled crowd of trustees, supporters, and special guests prior to dinner being served. “It just doesn’t get any better than this.”

In addition to putting GRAIN fundraising over $100 million, the gift also pushed the school’s larger fundraising effort—which ultimately began in 2014—over $220 million in gifts and pledges in support of the GRACE summer program, debt reduction and financial stability, and construction of a new track and field complex, faculty housing and chairs, and the Groton Fund, as well as tuition and cost containment. Of the $100 million GRAIN total, $85.6 million is already gifted in cash.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much,” said Mr. Maqubela. “You all made this possible with your time, with your talent, with your treasure. Even when you didn’t believe that this was going to be possible. There is no language that can express how grateful we are to live a life of meaning that you’ve made possible.”

The GRAIN celebration dinner started with grace offered by Groton’s sixth headmaster, Bill Polk ’58, and a toast by Jonathan Klein P’09, ’11, ’18, who, as Board of Trustees president when GRAIN began, helped rally early support for the initiative. 

A lineup of speakers followed, each touching on the many ways GRAIN and its accompanying mindset—that Groton should do everything in its power to remove any barriers that prevent the school from attracting the most talented student body possible, and ensuring the success of those students once they arrive—has come to define life on the Circle.  

“I consider it remarkable that GRAIN has yielded $100 million in just ten years,” said Gardner Mundy ’59. “Most capital campaigns focus on bricks and mortar, or something tangible. GRAIN instead focused on an idea. This took a lot of guts because the intangibility of the idea was coupled with deliberate tuition freezes and purposeful decisions to keep annual increases at or below the level of general inflation. These constraints directly affected the school’s revenue stream and complicated its financial planning and overall management. But look at how well it worked.”

Former trustee Diana Ferguson ’81, who served as board treasurer from 2018 until the end of her tenure in 2024, said GRAIN was more than a typical campaign. 

“As I consider the journey of GRAIN—both where it began and where it’s headed—I feel an overwhelming sense of purpose and gratitude,” Ms. Ferguson said. “Seven years ago, I described GRAIN as a continuum—not a campaign with a start and finish, but a long-term commitment to affordability and inclusion that would evolve as our school and community evolved. When we launched this initiative, we knew we were undertaking something bold—something that would challenge unconventional thinking about independent school financing. 

“It’s truly fair to say that every dollar raised for GRAIN wasn’t just a donation, but an investment—an investment in Groton’s future, in its students, and in our shared vision of inclusion,” she added.

Kathy Giles, current rector of St. Paul’s School and former longtime Groton faculty member, praised Mr. Maqubela and everyone involved in making the idea of GRAIN become such a successful reality.

“I have been so pleased and proud to watch the school grow to realize what at first was Temba’s vision but has now become the shared vision of a storied school that embraces the best of its core while boldly evolving to reaffirm its relevance and leadership among independent schools today,” said Mrs. Giles. “I could not help but admire the courage and commitment of the trustees and the alumni, family, and friends who shared the hard work of articulating and then executing these very ambitious goals within the framework of the Groton experience.” 

The appeal of GRAIN is truly global, as support has come in from fourteen countries spanning five continents. In her remarks, Trustee Nancy Yang P’18, ’29 explained why. 

“In my role as part of the global Groton family, sometimes people ask me, ‘Why is there such huge support for GRAIN from families in Asia?’ and my answer is always the same,” she said. “I can’t think of a single GRAIN donor in Asia whose personal life trajectory hasn’t been fundamentally altered by access to education. It could have been in their generation or in their parents’ generation but the story is the same and resonates deeply with our international Groton families: Access to education changes lives. Personally, I believe access to a Groton education changes the world.” 

Adopted by the Board of Trustees in November 2014 as the school’s number-one strategic and fundraising priority, GRAIN froze tuition for four years and allowed for moderate increases in other years, while expanding the number of students receiving financial assistance and guaranteeing that Groton School would consider all applicants without regard to their ability to pay. As a result, the school’s tuition—the highest among forty peer schools in 2014–15—is now lowest, and Groton is recognized as the leader among independent schools in inclusion and tuition containment.