AGS Announces Sara Blakely Foundation as Lead Auction Sponsor
AGS announced on Friday that the Sara Blakely Foundation is the lead sponsor of SPLASH! Atlanta Girls’ School Auction 2017, to be held at the Georgia Aquarium on Saturday, April 1, 2017.
“We are thrilled to partner again with the Sara Blakely Foundation and value their continuing commitment and support of AGS,” said Head of School Ayanna Hill-Gill. “Every year, AGS enrolls girls who mirror the remarkable diversity of our city. This year students join us from over 60 different zip codes around the Atlanta area. Through our signature programs, both academic and co-curricular, we are empowering and educating girls to become leaders. We cannot do this without the funds generated from our auction, which brings together our families and extended community each year in celebration of our mission: Inspiring Girls to Lead Lives of Purpose.”
Proceeds from the school’s annual auction—the school’s largest fundraiser—are invested directly back into AGS to provide exceptional academic programs including STEAM initiatives, internships, fine arts, global travel, athletics and extracurricular activities, and need-based financial aid that benefits approximately 30% of our student body. In the last five years, over $800,000 has been raised through the auction. An additional aspect of each year’s auction is a dedicated paddle raise to support an immediate need. Recent paddle raises have supported the creation of a black box theater, STEAM initiatives and curriculum support, the purchase of a new bus, and restroom renovations.
Atlanta Girls’ School and the Sara Blakely Foundation have a history of partnership. In 2010, the foundation donated $100,000 to AGS in support of the founding and development of the school’s Entrepreneurship and Economics course. In this Upper School course, students study the ins and outs of starting a business, culminating in the creation of a business plan centered around an invention or an idea and the opportunity to compete for venture capital to continue research and development of their business plans. In 2005, Sara Blakely was the keynote speaker at the AGS Celebration of Girls’ Education event, which has now become the school’s annual auction. Ms. Blakely has also visited the AGS campus on various occasions throughout the years, speaking to the students in the Entrepreneurship and Economics course and as an all-school assembly guest speaker.
“I believe the world would be in a much better place if half the human race (women) were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses—essentially be given the chance to soar,” said Sara Blakely. “It’s an honor to support the Atlanta Girls’ School as they cultivate that vision right here in our own backyard.”
The Sara Blakely Foundation
Since its inception in 2006, the Sara Blakely Foundation has donated millions to charities around the world, focusing on charities that empower underserved women and girls. In 2013, Sara Blakely became the first self-made, female billionaire to sign the Melinda and Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half her wealth to charity. While many of the world’s resources are being depleted, one is waiting to be unleashed: Women. The Sara Blakely Foundation is on a mission to support women and help them SOAR through education, entrepreneurship and the arts. For more information about The Sara Blakely Foundation, visit
www.sarablakelyfoundation.com.
For AGS Auction Tickets, Sponsorship information, and item donation forms, click here.