Transforming Lives:
The Power of the Campaign for the Boys
“On behalf of the students and faculty of Woodberry — past, present, and future — I extend my deepest gratitude for your generous support of the Campaign for the Boys. This campaign was successful because of your love for this place and your unwavering belief in our mission to know, challenge, and love each and every boy who joins the Woodberry family. This is a brotherhood unlike any other, and this campaign helped us preserve our culture based on honor, character, and integrity — while at the same time always keeping an eye toward evolving and adapting so that this special school remains relevant, important, and meaningful for generations of Tigers to come.”
Headmaster Byron C. Hulsey ’86
Impact Summary
“We have completely restored the Walker Building. Renovated dorms, new faculty housing, and a student-focused Community Street mean the building continues to hum with life, as it has for more than a century. The Walker Building is a constant in the Woodberry experience across generations.”
Ted Baker '96, Co-Chair
“What was resoundingly clear throughout this campaign has been the interest of the greater WFS community in securing our financial sustainability and forwarding the Woodberry experience for a broader base of boys. We have been able to do this through our institutional commitment to keep tuition increases low and to ensure that Woodberry is affordable for all families.”
DD Matz (P '15, '18, '21), Co-Chair
“We have invested in our faculty and staff. Today every full-time employee earns a living wage. Salaries for teachers have increased thanks to new endowments, and we have built or fully renovated more than a dozen faculty houses. We know the men and women of the faculty are the daily deliverers of Woodberry’s mission. Whether we are hiring new faculty or ensuring veteran teachers can continue to learn and grow, our collective gifts have cared for Woodberry’s most important asset — its people.”
Bob Roper '64, Co-Chair
Giving and Impact
Joseph Stephenson '17
As a student at West Point, Joe Stephenson ’17 was better prepared than most. The military environment was highly structured and scheduled, something that was foreign to many students coming out of high school. But for Joe, it felt almost like an extension of what he experienced at Woodberry.
“Not much changed for me when I got to
college,” said Joe with a laugh. “At Woodberry, we learned to balance our days, making sure we put in the work for academic success while also participating in extracurriculars.
Nate Ingram '15
Nate Ingram ’15 fell in love with Woodberry long before he became a student. When he was twelve years old and a self-described sports junkie, Nate enrolled in Woodberry Forest Sports Camp. For three weeks in the summer of 2009, he got to live the teenage boy’s dream: a sleepover camp where the sole focus was on playing a multitude of sports and hanging out with friends.
“Sports Camp had a huge impact on me,”said Nate. “Not only being able to play different sports, but also getting to know the counselors. In my eyes, these guys were everything I wanted to be.
Thomas Mulry '16
“Timid and scared” is how Tom Mulry ’16
described his teenage self when he first enrolled at Woodberry. “The first couple of weeks were very hard. I was shell-shocked, coming from a small town in northern Virginia.”
Though boarding school was not a foreign concept to Tom — his mother was a Foxcroft alumna, and he had cousins who had attended boarding schools in the Northeast — all Tom really knew about Woodberry was what he saw
when he was enrolled at Sports Camp when he was eleven years old.
Woodberry’s Financial Model:
A Focus on Long-Term Affordability
As the Campaign for the Boys worked to fund tuition assistance, the school’s budgeting and investment strategies worked to slow the growth of the cost of a Woodberry education. The 2 percent tuition increase for the 2022–23 school year was the lowest in more than fifty years, and other increases this decade have been below the level of household income growth.
By the Numbers
The Campaign for the Boys was a transformational effort that galvanized Woodberry’s fundraising over seven remarkable and productive years. While the campaign ended in December 2023, a core component of it will continue on: the Amici Fund.
The Amici Fund is the foundation upon which all philanthropy is built at Woodberry and has been the through line since the early days. The tradition of widespread community support for the Amici Fund elevated to new heights during the campaign. Over the seven years of the campaign, 6,779 alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends contributed more than $27 million to the Amici Fund. More than 60 percent of alumni contributed to the annual fund in each of the seven years of the Campaign, and parent participation reached 94 percent.
“The Tiger Nation has an unmatched network of volunteers. We owe much of our success to countless dedicated volunteers and their steadfast commitment to furthering Woodberry’s mission.
The extraordinary network of support demonstrated by our volunteers over the last seven years was both humbling and inspiring, and we are profoundly grateful.”
Catherine Wharton, Assistant Headmaster for External Affairs & Chief Development Officer
School Revenue FY 17 vs. FY 23
The campaign significantly bolstered Woodberry’s financial outlook. A comparative analysis of philanthropic revenue pre- and post-campaign underscores its efficacy, illustrating philanthropic contributions now constitute 49 percent of the school’s total net revenue stream. This substantial increase in philanthropic support reflects a marked enhancement in the institution’s financial sustainability and underscores the campaign’s success in fortifying Woodberry’s long-term financial stability.
898 Woodberry Forest Road
Woodberry Forest, VA 22989