ACS Alumni Fund Advisory Committee Accountability Report

Photo provided by Pavel Constantinov

ACS Alumni Fund Advisory Committee Accountability Report

1st Half of 2016 Academic Year /September 2015 – March 2016/

ACS Alumni Fund Report Table of Contents QUICK OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 MESSAGE FROM THE ALUMNI FUND ADVISORY COMMITTEE .................................................................... 4 THE ALUMNI FUND OVER THE PAST 6 MONTHS ................................................................................................ 5 QUALITY OF EDUCATION REPORT ........................................................................................................................... 6 YOUR GIFTS AT WORK .................................................................................................................................................. 6 CONTRIBUTIONS BEYOND GIVING ......................................................................................................................... 8 CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT PLAN UPDATE ............................................................................................................... 8 WANT TO DONATE? HAVE QUESTIONS? ............................................................................................................... 9

To learn more about the Fund and share your suggestions with the ACS Alumni Fund, please reach out to us via e-mail at [email protected] or visit us online at “Giving to the College” on the ACS website. pg. 2

ACS Alumni Fund Report Quick Overview

Gifts Breakdown by Year (Bulgarian leva) Number of Unique Donors 1st Half 2014-2015: 101 1st Half 2015-2016: 46 25,000

104

23,000

120

22,494

100

21,000 19,000

80

67

17,000 15,000

60

12,615

13,000

40

11,000 9,000

20

7,000

0

5,000 1st Half 2014-2015 Total Alumni Gifts

1st Half 2015-2016 Total Number of Gifts

Gifts Breakdown by Category (Bulgarian leva) 1st Half Academic 2014-2015

1st Half Academic 2015-2016

3,069 8,921 6,290

186

11,843

1,229

1,842

■ Need-based Financial Aid

1,010 545 175

Total: BGN 12,615

■ Academic Departments ■ Infrastructure

Total: BGN 22,494

■ Athletics & Student Clubs

■ Unrestricted


ACS Alumni Fund Report Message from the Alumni Fund Advisory Committee Dear Fellow Alumni, We are more than halfway through the Alumni Fund’s fourth annual campaign. For yet another year, the Alumni Fund Advisory Committee (AFAC) would like to thank you for joining us in giving back to ACS. We invite each and every one of you to make a gift before the end of August. Your contribution, regardless of its size, will raise the overall participation rate and will help our alumni community exceed the 10% participation target for the first time. In the first half of 2015/2016, several exciting developments pointed to the strengthening of our culture of giving. Seven alumni are now recurring donors, seamlessly making gifts annually or monthly. Many of you have also made a gift every year since the inception of the Fund without specifically using the recurring donation option. Consistency in giving is a cornerstone of providing sustainable alumni support to the College. What is more, individuals have acted as class leaders, inspiring others to join them in giving. For example, Maria Mircheva ’97 used the newly introduced Facebook sharing option to motivate classmates to contribute to the annual campaign. We invite all of you, especially if your class has not passed 10% participation, to utilize the Facebook Share button after making an online gift and tag classmates who might be willing to follow your example. Finally, the ACS alumni in New York City organized the first-of-its-kind fundraiser at the Bulgarian Consulate and raised over $1,500 for need-based financial aid. Several informal get-togethers were organized in London and Sofia, offering even more opportunities to alumni to reconnect. At ACS, alumni support has been felt in numerous ways. Student projects sponsored by the Student Activities Fund have made a significant impact on campus life. On March 12th, the international student-led science forum FISSION took place, turning ACS into a nuclear reactor for good ideas. Also partially funded by the Alumni Fund were the ACS Debate Invitational Tournament, the Medical Club, the Teach for Bulgaria ACS Activity, and nine other projects. AFAC encourages all alumni to contribute to the Student Activities Fund and help bring the incredible ideas of ACSers to scale. The ACS campus is also changing physically. The Bubble will be replaced, and the construction of the Campus Center will get underway in the coming months. You can contribute to those initiatives, as well, through the Alumni Fund. Thanks to the Gipson family’s generous 1-to-1 match for the Campus Master Plan, you can double your impact. The members of AFAC love hearing from fellow alumni, so if you have questions or ideas about how to get involved, contact us at [email protected]. In the fall, we will be recruiting additional members. Please let us know if you are interested in joining our team and would like to contribute to making the ACS alumni community ever stronger. Sincerely, The Alumni Fund Advisory Committee Georgi Klissurski ’10 Kiril Popov ’04 Zara Rancheva ’14 Mira Kovacheva ’05 Desislava Karakoleva ’11 Hristo Popov ’01 Mariya Tsvetkova ‘10


ACS Alumni Fund Report The Alumni Fund over the Past 6 Months  46 alumni contributed to the ACS Alumni Fund making 67 gifts  BGN 22,494 raised and put to work to help ACS and its students  Top 3 Classes by Participation Rate: 1997, 2003, 2002  Top 3 Classes by Gifts Amount: 1997, 2000, 2002 Breakdown of Gift Amount by Category (Bulgarian Leva) BGN 25,000

8,921

22,494

BGN 20,000 BGN 15,000 11,843

385

175

160

1,010

BGN 10,000 BGN 5,000 BGN 0 Need-based Academic financial aid departments

Athletics

Student clubs Infrastructure Unrestricted

Total

Breakdown of Gifts by Category1

1

The total is more than the number of individual donations as those are often broken down into different categories.


ACS Alumni Fund Report Quality of Education Report Selected Qualitative Indicators  ACS students ranked third in the Bulgarian Language and Literature matriculation exam with a 5.66 average. In the other mandatory matriculation exam, in an elective field, the College was top in the country.  Members of the English Speech and Debate Club were exceptionally successful in the last national tournament for the year. Ana-Maria Markovska, 9th grade, won first prize in the novice prose event and ACS won the team award in its division.  Sophomore Ivan Ivanov aced the Young Talents competition of the Ministry of Education and Sciences. His project, "An autonomous robot assisted by controlling gestures" will represent Bulgaria at the EXPO Science Europe 2016 in Toulouse.  Seniors Ivana Andreeva and Kamelia Drenkova won golden ribbon at the Vienna International Science and Engineering Fair for high schools with their project Synthesis of Acetylsalicylic Acid and Different Methods of Filtration. At the Vienna fair, the project by seniors Venezia Georgieva and Nikita Ovsiannikov At an Arm’s Reach won best project in the Senior Engineering and Technology category.  The girls’ Table Tennis team became champion of Sofia for the fifth consecutive year. Way to go! Please be sure to check the Education Quality section on the ACS website (http://acs.bg/Home/Giving_to_the_College/Education_Quality.aspx) for a more comprehensive overview of how our school monitors teaching and learning.

Your Gifts at Work During the first half of the 2015/2016 academic year, alumni significantly contributed towards need-based financial aid. The total amount of gifts designated for the purpose, 11,843 BGN, represents a nearly fourfold increase from last year. The funds will help ACS expand the number of scholarships given out annually and incentivize more talented students to attend. Another 233 BGN, donated to the Academic Departments category, were used to cover part of the costs for new Psychology textbooks, and 360 BGN, donated specifically for soccer kits, were used as intended. Alumni also raised 250 BGN to support the mission of the Student Activities Fund (SAF), by choosing the Student Clubs and Organizations Category. As the Bubble, a symbol for generations of ACS students, went down, a total of 1,446.87 BGN, donated to the Athletics category during the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 school years, were allocated for the construction of the new gym. The money donated in the Infrastructure category and part of the gifts in the Unrestricted category were also saved to be used for financing the Campus Center project and are expected to be matched 1 for 1 by the Gipson family. To learn more about the Fund and share your suggestions with the ACS Alumni Fund, please reach out to us via e-mail at [email protected] or visit us online at “Giving to the College” on the ACS website. pg. 6

ACS Alumni Fund Report Student Activities Fund In 2014 ACS launched the Student Activities Fund (SAF). It was founded by members of the Alumni Fund Advisory Committee (AFAC) and the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) at ACS to support student projects, activities, and events. SAF’s budget is funded by the money donated to the Student Clubs & Organizations gift category, PTA’s own budget, and Fibank. Below you will find a summary of results and brief descriptions of a few projects/clubs which exemplify how SAF has helped empower ACS students and bring their ideas to scale:

SAF Results Summary

Number of applications Projects funded overall Projects funded fully Projects funded partially Total SAF commitment Average grant per project

Spring 2014 3 1 1 0 75 BGN 75 BGN

Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2016 Spring 2016 4 4 11 7 3 2 11 2 1 0 1 1 2 2 10 1 900 BGN 530 BGN 2500 BGN 500 BGN 300 BGN 265 BGN 227 BGN 250 BGN

ACS Debate Invitational Stoyan Trenchev ’16 and Kamen Velichkov ’16, together with their teammates from the Debate Club, organized an invitational debate tournament. The main goal was to give more students the opportunity to practice in a competitive environment and perfect their skills, which would help them become the capable future leaders of the country. Teach for Bulgaria Activity Members organized Ich Will, a day-long scavenger hunt with clues in German, for the second year in a row. The event helped 44 students from 6 different schools practice their language skills. ACS Medical Club SAF helped the Medical Club invite more speakers, purchase educational aids, and organize three separate awareness campaigns over the course of the school year. The students sought to further educate others about AIDS, eating disorders, and mental health issues, and engage community members in open discussions on these topics.


ACS Alumni Fund Report Contributions Beyond Giving With this section of the report we want to highlight ACS alumni involvement that goes beyond financial giving. Here are some examples of how alumni contributed their time and energy to engage the ACS community in the 1st half of the academic 2015/2016.  Evgenia Peeva ’04 delivered a message on behalf of alumni to the Class of 2016 at their Graduation ceremony  Konstantin Rangelov ’10 met with current students to share a few thoughts on his college experience and offer some invaluable advice 

ACS Alumni working in various STEM fields evaluated student projects during the FISSION science forum

 Borislav Stefanov '97, Neli Koleva '98, Maria Popkovacheva '03, Todor Kalaydjiev '01, and Trayan Trayanov '01 spoke to candidate families on the Open House Days within the annual recruitment campaign of the school  Elena Gerasimova '03 and Mario Prohasky '01, along with Georgi Klissurski '10, organized the first formal ACS fundraiser in New York City, bringing together 23 alumni who raised over $1,500 for needbased financial aid  Victoria Angelova ’14 and Tomislava Tomova ’15 visited ACS to present about the institutions of higher learning they are attending – Wellesley College and the American University of Paris, respectively

Campus Development Plan Update How much money has been raised from Alumni and matched by the Gipson Family? ACS Alumni have raised a total of 54,461.73 BGN for the Campus Master Plan in the period from the start of the 2012/2013 academic year through March 31st, 2016. This sum includes alumni gifts in the Infrastructure category, as well the Unrestricted (ACS Admin Priorities). The Gipson family has pledged to match alumni contribution 1:1 for up to 250,000 USD. Thus, the grand total alumni impact currently amounts to 108,923.46 BGN (approx. 61,803 USD). What is the construction plan and schedule for the project? The bidding and negotiation process is still underway. ACS hopes to launch the project this summer. For more details, please refer to President Ewing's message in the Alumni Magazine. To learn more about the Fund and share your suggestions with the ACS Alumni Fund, please reach out to us via e-mail at [email protected] or visit us online at “Giving to the College” on the ACS website. pg. 8

ACS Alumni Fund Report

What is the Campus Development Plan? For more information on the Campus Plan, please take a look at pages 2-4 of the 2012/2013 accountability report here.

Want to donate? Have questions? You can donate online at “Giving to the College” on the ACS website or the Alumni Office, located on the ACS campus. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to any AFAC member (http://acs.bg/Home/Giving_to_the_College/About_the_Alumni_Fund.aspx) or to your class representative. If you are not sure who your class representative is, please contact Roumyana Mihaylova, e-mail [email protected], from the ACS Alumni Relations Office to find out.
