Building Community: the USN Annual Fund

The Annual Fund is a community-wide fundraising effort that draws support from alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, friends, and parents and helps to meet the demands of unexpected situations.
By Mimi Bliss, Annual Fund Chair, Trustee, and Parent of Will '22

Greetings, fellow USN parents. When I agreed to chair the Annual Fund for the 2020-2021 school year, I assumed we would follow a typical process. A nice mailing would be followed by a phone call from a volunteer, with an email reminder at the end of December. But, like everything else in 2020, we’ve had to reimagine our approach to raising these critical dollars for our beloved school. 

For the new parents reading this message, the Annual Fund contributes more than $1.6 million to USN’s operating budget, meeting the needs that tuition alone can’t cover. It touches every aspect of school life for our students and faculty. The Annual Fund is a community-wide fundraising effort that draws support from alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, friends, and parents and helps to meet the demands of unexpected situations.

As we all adapt in this constantly changing environment, I’m incredibly grateful for the leadership of USN Director Vince Durnan and our dedicated faculty. They’ve reinvented school in a pandemic, while renewing our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion and building our school community.  

While Annual Fund dollars are needed this year, perhaps more than ever, we recognize that our families are having vastly different experiences in this difficult chapter for our country. Our focus for the Annual Fund is on personal outreach. Instead of a letter from me,  you can expect a call from a parent volunteer or member of the Development Office. Our goal is to check-in with families to see how you’re doing and whether a conversation around philanthropic support of USN is one you are ready to have. 

If your family has been waiting for the Annual Fund solicitation in the mail, and you are ready to support USN this year, you can make your gift online today or email Mimi Bliss, Annual Fund Director Claudia Huskey, or Director of Development Anne Westfall, and we will send you a form to mail your gift. Please reach out to one of us with questions about the Annual Fund or if you’d like to make a pledge for a donation you’ll make later in the year. 

Thank you for the grace and resiliency you’ve shown over the past eight months. We are grateful for you and look forward to connecting with you. I am confident our children, our school, and our community will be stronger in the future thanks to the hard work of so many in the present.
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.