Middlesex School announces a gift projected to top $200 million, with 40% received so far

Middlesex School, an independent school in Concord, Massachusetts, announced on September 26 that it has received a gift from the late alumnus Victor K. Atkins, class of 1963, with a projected long-term impact of more than $200 million. Head of School Bessie Speers and board chair Jason Robart announced it at a reception opening the school's 125th-anniversary celebration. The school calls it by far the largest gift in its history.

The school describes a gift set out in a binding memorandum in Atkins's estate. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which included it in an October 8 roundup of September's largest gifts, called it an estimated $200 million bequest.

How the gift is divided

According to the school, the memorandum sets the allocation. Twenty-five percent goes to the Faculty Endowment, to recruit and retain teachers and keep a low student-teacher ratio. Fifteen percent goes to the Financial Aid Endowment, and 10 percent to Residential Life.

The remaining 50 percent is unrestricted, to be designated by the Head of School and the Board of Trustees, and the school says it will be added to the endowment. The Chronicle summarized that as half going to the endowment; the school's wording makes clear that this half is at the board's discretion.

What has arrived so far

The $200 million figure is a projection, and the money is not all in hand. In a list of questions and answers, the school said about 40 percent of the gift has arrived and been added to the endowment. The rest is held in a charitable remainder trust and will reach the school over time under the trust's terms. The school expects the full gift to be realized over the next several decades.

In general, a charitable remainder trust pays income to named beneficiaries for a period before the remainder passes to charity. The school does not say who the beneficiaries are or how long the trust runs, and we have not seen the documents. The school says the gift has already given its board "greater flexibility and confidence" as it considers investments in areas such as compensation, financial aid and the physical campus.

Atkins, who served as chairman of Polaris Industries, gave to the school for decades. The school lists the Atkins Athletic Center (1993), the Atkins House dormitory (2000) and the Elizabeth Atkins Field House (2002) among his earlier gifts. The Chronicle reported that he died in 2025 at 80.

Bequests in the wider data

Giving USA 2026, researched by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, estimated that bequests totaled $62.19 billion in 2025, up 19.7% in current dollars and 16.6% after inflation, the largest increase of the four sources of giving. The release notes that bequests have risen 20% or more in current dollars in three of the last four years, but that bequest giving historically fluctuates substantially from year to year.

What other nonprofits can take from it

In our view, the useful lesson is in the structure, not the size. A written allocation tells a school, and its future boards, how the donor wanted the money used, while the unrestricted half leaves room for judgment. A restricted gift is a promise the organization has to keep for as long as the money lasts.

The timing matters too. A headline figure and cash in the bank can be decades apart, so boards counting on a planned gift may want to ask which parts have been received and which depend on a trust. "It is now our responsibility to strengthen and grow that foundation for generations to come," said George Noble, the school's assistant head for institutional advancement, in the announcement.