Sidwell Friends School has been educating students in the Quaker tradition for more than 140 years. The School is recognized for the high quality of the educational experience it provides and for its emphasis on nurturing independent and ethical thinkers who are committed to letting their lives speak.

Today, Sidwell Friends is on the verge of a historic transformation—one that will benefit future students for generations to come. Since 1963, the School has educated our youngest students, in PK through 4th grade, on its campus in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s an experience that many students, alumni, and their families have treasured. But it was not what Thomas Sidwell or the School’s leaders envisioned as the ideal. In our hearts, we have always hoped that the day would arrive when we could reunite all our students, faculty, and staff on one campus, where our community can come together as one and our values can shine most brightly.

The first step in that transformation is already underway. Thanks to the generous support of our community—alumni, current and former parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends around the world—our new Upper School is under construction. The Upton Street building and grounds that Sidwell Friends purchased in 2017 has been redesigned into an environmentally sustainable educational space and experience. It will open in September 2026.

Now it’s our opportunity to complete this vision. From the beginning, Together We Shine was always meant to be a multi-phase, comprehensive campaign. The first phase, which ran from 2015 to 2022, and the second phase, which concluded on June 30, 2024, raised a combined $159 million in gifts and pledges—nearly triple the amount of any previous campaign. That success made the Upper School project possible and helped increase the size of the endowment to more than $91 million as of June 2025. It also boosted support for financial aid, funded five endowed faculty positions, enabled the creation of the Center for Ethical Leadership and the Center for Teaching and Learning, and much more.

This October, Sidwell Friends will launch the culminating phase of Together We Shine with a new, overall campaign goal of $220 million. We are proud and humbled to acknowledge that as of June 2025, we have raised more than $189 million—85 percent—of that $220 goal thanks to the commitment of early leadership contributors, including an anonymous alumnus who generously pledged a $10 million matching gift to accelerate the fundraising efforts.  This final fundraising phase will conclude in June 2027. 

The campaign’s final phase will make possible the renovation of the Harrison Building—the current Upper School—into an extraordinary and engaging new Lower School. Contingent upon additional funds raised, we plan to break ground on the project in the summer of 2026 and open the new building as early as September 2028.

The Sidwell Friends community has been working towards a return to one campus for nearly a decade. Bringing Sidwell Friends together again will create opportunities for students and teachers from all divisions, strengthening our programs and community. On a practical level, operating one campus will be more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective, saving approximately $1.3 million each year. Unification will also ease the lives of our many families with students on both campuses.

And now, this shared vision is closer than ever.

Welcome New Campaign Leadership

For more than a decade, a stalwart and intrepid Campaign Steering Committee has led Together We Shine, the largest campaign in Sidwell Friends School history. As we transition to the culminating phase, we express our deepest gratitude to co-clerks Jason E. Carroll ’96, Charis Menschel P ’25, ’27, ’29, and David Milner ’86 for their extraordinary leadership and welcome them as Honorary Leaders. Jason, Charis, and David will join fellow Honorary Leaders Arlene Kogod and Robert Kogod P ’76, ’79, ’80; David P. Pearson ’52; and Helen Austern Colson ’53, P ’82, ’84, ’87 and continue to provide invaluable advice and counsel as we advance toward campaign completion and campus reunification.

We welcome Board of Trustees members Josh Miller P ’27, ’30 and Belinda Nixon P ’17, ’23 as campaign co-clerks for this culminating phase and thank them for their leadership at this pivotal moment. Together they will champion the efforts of fellow campaign volunteers and galvanize the philanthropic support for this historic campaign.

To learn more about the culminating phase of the Together We Shine campaign, please contact Tara Arras, assistant head of school for advancement, at arrast@sidwell.edu.