Annual Giving and Fundraising

Annual Giving and Fundraising

Investing In Our St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School

Dear Families of Faith, We hope this letter finds you enjoying the warm weather in and around our wonderful city! Before we know it, the halls of our Parish School will once again be filled with students as we head back for the 2016-2017 school year. Before we hit the ground running, we want to make families aware of changes that we are making to our fundraising activities that support our school.

Background Last Fall, the School Advisory Board identified the need to address challenges and perceived issues with fundraising at our St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School. An ad-hoc taskforce was formed to try and clarify the issues and challenges and agree to potential actions. The taskforce included representatives from the Board as well as parents who were integral in fundraising across the Block. The taskforce identified a number of key challenges we felt needed to be addressed. A few of them included: • Donor fatigue - perception that people are constantly being asked to contribute • Lack of clarity around purpose of fundraising “events” and how the funds are used • Potential for volunteer fatigue and a need for good succession planning Through meetings with administration and research on best practices of other schools, we determined that there is a need to streamline our approach to fundraising with the goal of making fundraising efforts more focused, more purposeful, more impactful and integrated into overall parish stewardship. We are also committed to improve the clarity around fundraising communication and fundraising governance for the school, including proper linkage to fundraising for the parish and diocese.

Why Fundraising Matters at St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School Our School Advisory Board deliberately sets tuition below the cost of educating our students to ensure a quality Catholic education is accessible to a broad spectrum of families.

• There is a gap between the tuition St. Ben’s charges and the full cost of educating each child.

That gap is on average approximately $850 per student.

• Fundraising is purposely used to close that gap in the annual school budget.

• Fundraising dollars go to the School’s operating budget (which includes teacher salaries and benefits),new curriculum resources, technology infrastructure and classroom tools, teacher retention programs (such as tuition reimbursement), and other enhancements that come up on a yearly basis.

• Using fundraising as a purposeful part of financing our overall school budget is actually a benefit for our families who have the means to contribute as donations to St. Ben’s fundraising activities are tax deductible.

There are 3 key pillars of which we seek your support of our St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School; Our Sunday Giving, our Annual Parish Giving Campaigns and our School Fundraising. The details of each can be found inside this flyer.

As Catholics we are invited to share the gifts that have bestowed so generously on us. In sharing these gifts we are offering thanks to God and dynamically supporting our St. Benedict Parish and School.

Input from our parish school families is important. We hope this new approach to fundraising has demonstrated our commitment to meeting our fundraising goals and to making the experience better for everyone.

Sincerely,

Father Jason Malave Pastor

Ms. Rachel Gemo Head of Parish School

Aileen Blake Chair School Advisory Board

Capstone Values at St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School Belong

Belonging is a fundamental desire of all humans.

We pray that you invest yourself lovingly and generously in our parish community.

Pray

Learn

It is here that we gather around the Eucharistic table and thank God for all of His gifts and blessings.

As our journey continues to unfold, we learn more about the beauty and richness that is our Catholic faith.

The most powerful way that we pray is during Mass every weekend.

Our Sunday Giving Our Giving Campaigns Our Parish School Fundraising Our School Advisory Board is streamlining its approach to fundraising with the goal of making fundraising efforts more focused, more purposeful, more impactful and integrated into overall parish stewardship.

Our total fundraising goal for the 2016-2017 School year is $700,000.

Four core fundraisers will be used to raise money for the school and will be spaced out throughout the school year.

These four core fundraising events were chosen because they are historically the largest fundraisers that support our School.

Other events that have traditionally been fundraisers (Athletic Event, Oktoberfest, etc.) will continue with a renewed focus on community-building events.

As appropriate, dollars will be directed to these groups from the primary fundraisers to support their initiatives and activities.

When it comes togrowing in faith, we are truly life-long learners.

Give

We give generously of our time, talent and treasure on a regular basis.

In sharing these gifts, we are offering thanks to God and dynamically supporting our St. Benedict Parish.

Serve

Service is the natural outgrowth of an active faith life together.

The more generously you serve St. Benedict Parish, the more you will feel a sense of belonging.

Our regular weekly generosity and the foundation of support we expect from our families.

The easiest and best ways to do this is through Give Central. Our stewardshipis our way of giving back regularly from the gifts we have received.

Annual Catholic Appeal

Forward in our Faith

St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School “Annual School Fund�

Fun Run

BenFest

School fundraiser sponsored by the HSA that incorporates fitness, leadership and character.

Three day summer festival that allows us to showcase our parish and school to the surrounding community.

To sustain Catholic schools in Chicago, ministerial formation, and initiatives for peace and justice throughout the Archdiocese

(formerly called Fund Our Future)

NOVEMBER

Giving campaign requesting parents, alumni and friends make a direct financial donation to the school.

Current school families are encouraged to make the St. Benedict Parish School Annual School Fund their first school giving priority while their children are enrolled.

Ball and Auction MARCH

This event is a celebratory, community-wide event that is one of our largest fundraisers.

It provides a wide range of opportunities for parishioners and friends to participate.

A five year campaign to address current and future needs of our parish and school.

SEPTEMBER

JULY

St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School

Giving and Fundraising Facts

• Because we are streamlining our approach to giving and fundraising, we would expect participation from families to increase to support fundraising efforts at St. Benedict Parish and Preparatory School. By focusing on the aforementioned appeals and fundraising events we believe we can enhance the effectiveness of each appeal and fundraiser, raise more money and make it less burdensome on our families.

• Gifts of all sizes are appreciated and celebrated. Contributions may be made with a check, credit card, through give central or with the transfer of stocks and securities. Donations may also be made in monthly installments. Please visit the Ways to Support St. Ben’s page for more information or to give online.

• Parish families should prayerfully consider both planned and extraordinary giving to the parish and school.

• There will be opportunities to give to designated funds to support specific initiatives, e.g.,athletic program, technology, teacher retention.

• Want to learn about supporting our Parish and Preparatory School mission? Please contact Fr. Jason Malave, Pastor (jmalave@stbenedict.com), Rachel Gemo, Head of Parish School (rgemo@stbenedict.com), or Aileen Blake (abblake@comcast.net) , Chair School Advisory Board for more information.

BENFEST

BALL & AUCTION

Aileen Blake Board Chair Rachel Combs Secretary Development

2015-2016

Becky Hauman Committee Chair Strategic Planning & Policy

Gina Hortatsos Committee Chair Catholic Identity Jamee Insko Committee Chair Development Alan Johnson Board Member Technology

FUN RUN

Peg McLaughlin Committee Chair Academic Excellence

Julie Rothweiler Board Member Marketing & Communications

Patrick Patras Board Member Academic Excellence

Karla Stearns Committee Chair Marketing & Communications

Greg Thompson Committee Chair Facilities

Ron Wojcik Committee Chair Technology

Tim Urquhart Board Vice Chair Committee Chair Finance

Bill Yankowski Board Member Development