Women in Finance hosted a panel on Andover’s Finances with Fernando Alonso, Assistant Head of School for Operations and Finance & CFO
Fernando R. Alonso, Assistant Head of School for Operations and Finance & CFO, gave a talk on Andover’s endowment management and long-term investment strategies last Friday. Hosted by the Women in Finance club (WIF), the discussion is a part of a collaboration with 2024-2025 Student Body Co-Presidents Nate Liang ’25 and Saraya Angbazo ’25, and is the first event of a three-part panel series on the school’s finance management.
With Philanthropy consisting of approximately 52 percent of the school’s total revenue, Andover has a team of fundraising professionals to maintain a steady influx of annual donations. Alonso shared how they work to manage Andover’s financial stability while upholding its fundamental educational values in areas such as construction.
“[The fundraising] team works hard to create and build connections with parents and alumni who want to support the Academy’s mission. Those gifts are sometimes current use gifts to support what the school is doing right now and other times it might be gifts into the endowment, like the $100 million that was raised in the last campaign for the endowment in support of financial aid. The second important component are the returns on the endowment, which allow the endowment to grow and support the program,” wrote Alonso in an email to The Phillipian.
Alonso continued, “We want the Academy to provide the best program to our students to fulfill our missions while doing it in a fiscally sustainable way. When we do renovations and new constructions we think about the environmental impact of those projects. For example, as you can see in the Pan Athletic Center and the Falls Music Center, environmental sustainability was integrated into the project.”
Learning the technicalities behind the donation process was a highlight of the panel. Angbazo explained that the use of alumni donations and funds is subject to certain restrictions, even though their allocation doesn’t always align with the wants of the Student Body.
“[We have] the misconception of ‘The billion dollar endowment, where is that going to?’ and just learning about the pretty simple reasoning behind it that a lot of the donations and a lot of the funds that Andover has [is] restricted so you can only use it towards certain aspects of campus and not necessarily to what the school or students want. Making that really clear was important,” said Angbazo.
Despite enduring rumors concerning Andover’s large endowment, only 15 percent of it is unrestricted. After attending the panel, Mwaita Nyakujarah ’27 shared her misconceptions before attending the panel, and reiterated the importance of giving more opportunities to students to learn about Andover’s financial strategies.
“I thought it was a pool of money that the school was free to spend. It was very interesting to see how the endowment is structured and the processes that they have to go through in order to access different restricted funds… It was encouraging to see how transparent [Alonso] was with Andover’s finances. He was very specific in the way they spend money without hiding. Having more opportunities for parents to understand where their money is going is important because as much as it’s being spent on the child’s education, they should have a broader understanding,” said Nyakujaraj.
Although clubs have led protests in the past, such as the Phillips Academy Sustainability Coalition (PASC), student input on Andover’s financial decisions remains limited. Kalista Kuemmerle ’28 shared her thoughts on students’ influence on investing strategies, as well as the school’s environmental goals.
“It’s important to leave it up to the adults who have a very good background in finance, but maybe they could send out a form asking ‘What do you think is the most important? And what do you see the student body struggling with right now?’… Also, sustainability should be the first thing on their mind. Prioritizing the environment is extremely important. In all circumstances, there should be more of a focus to go green. When you implement sustainability in your practices, it will prove to benefit you later on,” said Kuemmerle.
During the panel, Alonso mentioned that the “true cost” of a student attending Andover is 110 thousand dollars, contrasting with the tuition price of seventy thousand dollars. The event aimed to provide students with a better perspective on how and why decisions such as the removal of paper towels were made. Angbazo reflected on the opportunities Andover offers despite the “true cost” of attending.
“Along with all the other people who attended the panel, [it made us] more aware of the details that go behind endowment planning and use of funds at Andover. It just makes you more conscious of your impact as a student, and just what type of education that you’re really getting out of Andover and all the different resources you have here… being aware of such high costs for even the small space makes you more grateful for what we have and just being more conscious as a student,” said Angbazo.
Alyssa Schoonmaker ’26 and Sophia Tabibian ’26, the Co-Coordinators of Women in Finance, explained the aim behind the creation of their club as well as their initial meeting with Kirsten Glantz, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO).
“One of the reasons that we first started WIF was because we met with the CIO of the Andover Endowment, Kirsten Glantz, last spring just to learn more about what the endowment does. And through that, Alyssa and I realized, ‘Wow, everything that Kirsten’s telling us could be so relevant to the student body’. The way that our student experience is shaped is because of Andover’s finances, it’s because of the way that we manage our money, and so that was the leading inspiration,” said Tabibian.
Schoonmaker added, “Our overall goal was just to have students get a better understanding of the finances at Andover and how that impacts them directly and all the other aspects of Andover that we enjoy every day.”
