Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence – WFEE

The Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence, or WFEE, is a nonprofit that raises private money to fund innovative projects in Winchester’s public schools that fall outside the reach of the school budget. Community support turns into grants for educators and students, covering educational initiatives, professional development and student-led projects. The foundation also presents the Sarah Swiger Award and works to encourage leadership and innovation in the schools.

A group of residents founded WFEE in 1992, and it has since given more than $5 million to the schools. In 2005 its Promise Fund raised $900,000 over two years to pay teachers’ salaries during a budget crisis, and a later three-year campaign called PowerED Up set out to raise $850,000 to modernize school technology. WFEE hosts Authorfest, which brings authors and illustrators into every public school, and it organizes the Town Day Road Race and a fall gala.

What to Know

• The town-wide Trivia Bee, which began as a spelling bee in 1993, takes place every February.
• Since 2021, parents can sponsor a flamingo in honor of an educator, and volunteers flock each school with hundreds of birds on the last day of classes.
• Caren Connelly became the foundation’s first paid executive director in 2008.
• Supporters can subscribe to the foundation’s newsletter for updates.