The Evanston Township High School Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously to approve a $7 million gift from Leonard Schaeffer, the founding chairman and CEO of WellPoint Insurance (now Elevance Health), to the ETHS Foundation. The money will go toward remodeling the school’s auditorium.
The upgraded auditorium, contingent on payout of the gift, will be named the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for the Performing Arts. A memo to the school board about the gift agreement states that Schaeffer will pay out the gift over the next three years.
“Tonight we have the privilege of recognizing an extraordinary act of generosity from one of our own, Leonard Schaeffer, class of 1963,” said Superintendent Marcus Campbell. “Mr. Schaeffer’s $7 million gift to the ETHS Foundation is nothing short of transformative.”
The gift is the largest received by the ETHS Foundation in its history.
This will be the second item on the grounds named after Schaeffer. He previously donated $500,000 to the ETHS Foundation to help fund the school’s planetarium, earning him a spot in the name: The Leonard D. Schaeffer Theater and Michael Planetarium.
Starting the conversation
The ETHS Foundation hired Alford Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm, to complete a feasibility study in January 2023 ahead of the current building’s 100th anniversary.
After Alford conducted that study, the foundation set a $48 million fundraising campaign goal for the school’s Arts and Innovation Wing and kicked off a quiet phase of fundraising in Jan. 2024.
Foundation staff started a conversation with Schaeffer about this campaign months ago, and by October, he and the foundation, school board and ETHS leaders had tentatively agreed to the gift’s terms under a signed agreement.
Now, with the board’s approval, the gift can officially move forward.
“Reflecting on his time at ETHS, Mr. Schaeffer once shared that the people he had met and the education he received here led to opportunities to shape his future,” Campbell said. “His enduring commitment to our school underscores the vital role of alumni and community support in advancing our vision for ETHS.”
ETHS board approves $7 million gift for auditorium is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.