Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, has received $10.5 million from the Avenir Foundation in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, to improve teacher salaries and create endowed chairs in literature and science, the Albany Times Union reports.

The gift brings the endowment of the small, all-girls boarding school to about $70 million. Because the school spends no more than 5 percent of its endowment, the endowing of two faculty position will increase the amount available for teacher salaries and raises by about a half million dollars annually, said headmistress Trudy Hall.

The president of the Avenir Foundation, whom school officials did not name but the Times Union reports as Alice Dodge Wallace, is an alumna of the school. She has a "lifelong respect for teachers," said Hall, and the endowed chairs reflect that interest.