Invest in Lab

Your Legacy Starts Here

Ignite and nurture an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence.

Philanthropy provides Lab with the resources necessary to fulfill our mission of igniting and nurturing an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence.

A Community of Giving

When you make a contribution of any size to Lab, you join a community of parents, alumni, and friends who are committed to ensuring that our school provides each child with the most outstanding education.

Your contributions enable Lab to continue to attract and retain the best teachers and most qualified students, and to implement programs that support a broad, vibrant, and challenging educational experience.

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Our Promise to You

To secure Lab’s fiscal soundness and an appropriately resourced future, we steward our financial resources in ways that support our mission, and do so with the greatest care and sense of fiscal responsibility by:

Committing to financial policies and guidelines that promote efficient and transparent operations. Ensuring that fundraising supports the annual budget needs unmet by tuition, and also supports the long-term health of the Schools. Continuing to support a strong institutional advancement program to grow and strengthen the philanthropic culture of the school community and to facilitate annual long-term giving for the endowment. Launching a multiyear capital campaign to secure the financial resources required to implement some of the strategic and operational initiatives outlined in Lab’s Strategic Framework.

Generosity Starts Here

Graduating classes leave a lasting impact for future generations by funding their own endowed scholarship fund. When parents, students, and friends give a specific senior class gift, these gifts form the foundation of an endowed class scholarship fund that graduates of that particular class will then steward and continue to build as they develop their own philanthropic spirit and give back to Lab in the years to come.

Give to the Class of 2026 Class Scholarship Fund

Maroon for Life

When you give to Lab you join a larger University of Chicago community of donors. Recognition is given to donors at all levels through philanthropic societies that provide customized communication programs, special invitations, honor rolls, and other courtesies.

Which society is right for you? Whether you participate every year, make a transformative gift, or include Lab in your estate, there’s a place for you in the University’s donor community.

Ways to Give

Dewey Founder's Society

Dewey Soceity — The Dewey Founder’s Society recognizes donors who make aggregate gifts of $2,500 or more during the fiscal year. Membership includes invitations to special events.

Dewey Founder’s Society Giving Circles:
Midway Circle - $50,000
Drexel Circle - $25,000
Kimbark Circle - $10,000
Dorchester Circle - $5,000
Ellis Circle - $2,500

The Chicago Society

Maroon Loyalty Society

The Phoenix Society

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Lab have a fundraising program?

Securing generous support helps the institution close budget gaps in annual operations and allows Lab to meet aspirational goals that would otherwise be impossible to reach.

By connecting passionate philanthropists to programs and projects, fundraising also allows Lab to realize activities that further our vision and mission, and often go above and beyond in creative and meaningful ways.

Without these additional resources from dedicated supporters, Lab would be forced to make difficult choices between tuition levels, financial aid budgets, and programmatic activities.

How is Lab’s budget determined?

As a unit of the University of Chicago, Lab participates in both annual and multi-year University budgeting processes. With the guidance of Lab’s Board and under the director’s leadership, Lab’s finance team works with the principals, department chairs, and other administrators to determine staffing and capital needs and operating budgets.

These programmatic costs along with enrollment forecasts, the growth of net tuition, fundraising, and other revenues are incorporated into a multi-year budgeting model that guides Lab’s annual budget choices.

What are the goals of Lab’s financial aid program?

Lab's financial aid program seeks to remove financial barriers for students who contribute to and benefit from a Lab education. Lab's financial aid program serves to bolster the Schools' mission to honor diversity in all its forms. Increasing financial aid resources for current and entering students allows us to change the lives of future Lab alumni and strengthen our commitment to cultivating and nurturing a diverse and inclusive community.

How much financial aid does Lab provide annually?

Lab awarded approximately $5.4 million in need-based financial aid in 2023–24 (not including University remission), the highest amount in Lab's history. Continued increases in Lab’s aid budget, mainly achieved through philanthropy, are critical to Lab’s commitment to strengthening socioeconomic diversity and ensuring full access for all students to the transformative educational experiences at Lab.

What would a substantially larger endowment do for Lab?

Endowment income has historically been a stabilizing force in the operation of education institutions as it is less variable relative to other revenue streams and is available in perpetuity. At Lab, revenue from our endowment provides critical support for our financial aid program.

In addition, individual endowment funds also support professional development; Model United Nations; the Summer Link Program; the Zena Sutherland Awards for Children's Literature Program; faculty, staff, and student award programs; and more. Growing the endowment remains a long-term priority for philanthropy at Lab.