Graland Country Day School Foundation

Graland Country Day School Foundation

The Graland Country Day School Foundation was established in 1993 by the school's Board of Trustees as a separately incorporated vehicle for endowment stewardship. The late Frederic C. Hamilton, a lifetime trustee and namesake of several campus buildings, served as the foundation's first president. Its board has drawn heavily from Denver's financial infrastructure, including trustees from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Meketa Capital. Investment activity spans venture capital, buyout, and growth equity stages. The foundation participates in direct deals and fund commitments, with co-investment relationships that include Scott Reiman and Valeria Alberola, former ZOMALAB CEO, who served as a board member. The endowment's corpus funds roughly 14% of Graland Country Day School's annual operating costs, channeling distributions into financial aid to broaden the school's socio-economic mix. The board includes Dana Hensel as Investment Committee chair, Jeff Susman as treasurer, and Michael Bell as a trustee — all active in asset management. Philanthropic support from Colorado families like the Anschutz and Martin foundations has funded campus expansion, including the planned Performing Arts and Communications Building. In 2025, the school's business office received the NBOA Jeffrey Shields Innovation Award. Unlike independent foundations that outsource their CIO function, Graland embeds investment oversight within a board stacked with investment professionals — effectively operating as a fiduciary committee of financial practitioners rather than a conventional school endowment board. This structure blurs the line between trustee governance and direct portfolio management.