Studio Demo · Fictional school — Montessori Makers School is a fictional school built by Montessori Makers Studio
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What giving actually pays for.
We ask once a year, we tell you exactly where the money goes, and we do not send children home with envelopes. Below is the whole picture, including the parts that are not finished.
88%
Of cost covered by tuition
71%
Family participation, 2025–26
$1.1M
Aid awarded this year
0
Envelopes sent home with children
Where to give
Three funds, three different jobs.
If you are choosing between them and would like a recommendation: the Annual Fund first, every time. It is the least glamorous and the most load-bearing.
The Annual Fund
Closes the gap between tuition and the real cost of a place.
Tuition covers about 88% of what it costs to educate a child here. The Annual Fund covers the rest — guide salaries, material replacement, and the specialists who make the extensions possible. It is the fund we ask every family to join at whatever level is genuinely comfortable.
The Aid Endowment
Makes a place at MMS possible for families who could not otherwise consider it.
Thirty-eight percent of our families receive need-based aid, funded partly from operations and partly from an endowment we are working to grow. Every dollar added here is a dollar that does not have to be found again next year.
Play With Purpose
Rebuilding the outdoor environment, 2026–2028.
A three-year capital campaign to replace the play structure, extend the garden by two beds, add a covered outdoor work area, and re-surface the yard so it drains. Designed with the children, who had strong and specific views.
Where it goes
Eighty-eight cents of every dollar we spend comes from tuition.
The remaining twelve is the gap that giving closes. In practice that gap is almost entirely people: the third adult in a Primary classroom, the counsellor, and the four specialists who teach Spanish, music, art, and the garden.
We publish an annual report each October with the full accounts, including compensation bands and the aid distribution. It goes to every family, every donor, and anyone who asks.
We do not run auctions, galas with ticket tiers, or fundraising competitions between classrooms. One letter in October, one reminder in May.
Ways to give
Six routes, one of them free.
Employer matching is the one families forget. If your company matches and you have never filed, that is the single highest-leverage twenty minutes available to this school.
Give online
One-time or monthly, by card or bank transfer.
Employer match
Roughly a third of our gifts are matchable and never claimed.
Appreciated securities
Often the most tax-efficient route for larger gifts.
Donor-advised funds
We are a 501(c)(3); our EIN is on the giving form.
Qualified charitable distributions
For grandparents over 70½.
Volunteer time
The garden, the Feast, and the library are run by families.