Students are back on campus and classes have begun. As we dive into the new school year, our development office is pausing to take stock of where the school stands with its fundraising goals. Our fiscal year began July 1. As we enter into the fifth and final year of the school’s strategic plan, we have major fundraising goals ahead of us. Now more than ever, we’ll need the support of our entire NCSSM community.

“Although it is early in the fiscal year, we are already seeing progress toward our targets, both financial benchmarks and participation numbers,” says Development Director Lauren Carr ’00. “We look forward to strong growth toward our goals as the year progresses. We hope you will be inspired to get involved, if you haven’t already.”

The school’s overall fundraising goal for the 2016-2017 fiscal year is $2,290,000. See this total broken down into specific goals for constituent groups in the charts below.

The first two months have started out strong, with $130,843 coming in from alumni, families, students, faculty and staff.

Our participation goal among alumni this year is high: 1,500 alumni. Nearly 100 alumni have made their gifts so far, over 6% of our goal as we kick off the fiscal year. Many of these alumni lend their support through a recurring gift option. These gifts not only help give us the early jump on participation, but also ensure sustainable support for the school. To make a recurring gift, just check “make this a monthly gift” when donating. 

For families, our participation goal is 750. We have already had 74 families make their gifts, getting us off on the right foot. We embrace an inclusive definition of families, including parents, guardians, and grandparents of current students and alumni, for both residential and online programs.

While we have seen a steady increase in participation from families and alumni, we fell short in reaching last year’s participation goals in both groups. To reach this year’s goals we are urging everyone to pitch in. Gifts of any size add up to make a big difference.

Have you made your gift yet? If you haven’t, there’s no better time! Help us get off to a strong start as we work toward our goals during the first quarter. Remember, you can increase the impact of your gift. Be sure to check if your employer will match your donation through a matching gift program.

Already made your gift? Remind others to donate too. Research shows that individuals are 25 times more likely to donate when personally asked by a peer!

We’ll update you on our progress toward these goals each quarter. We hope you’ll take a look and consider how you can help NCSSM continue to provide life-changing education for increasing numbers of students.