Individual School Endowment Initiative Reaches Major Milestone

The Foundation for Madison's Public Schools (FMPS) is proud to announce the tremendously successful completion of Phase I of its Individual School Endowment Initiative (ISEI). Begun in 2003 with an extraordinary challenge gift from John and Leslie Taylor and the Madison-based Clay-Price Fund, Phase I of this first of its kind initiative aimed to create an endowment fund for each of the district's 47 schools. With more than $919,000 raised since then, each of these schools has now exceeded the $10,000 fundraising milestone needed to establish their endowment, and 12 of these schools have endowments of over $25,000. These endowments are managed for FMPS by the Madison Community Foundation.

With an endowment fund, each school uses only the interest while the principal remains untouched and continues building through long-term investments and fundraising. The endowment is a permanent fund that generates income for school-based grantmaking year after year. The larger the endowment, the more income it generates for grants for creative and innovative programs and projects that might not otherwise be possible.

Currently, 20 of the 47 schools have active grants committees generally consisting of staff, teachers and parents. These committees supervise disbursement of their endowment fund's income through an annual grant process.. To date, ISEI grants have supported school enhancements such as multi-cultural literature for guided reading groups, audio-visual club equipment, awards for high-achieving students of color, student transportation to performances at the Overture Center, school prairie upgrades, school-wide yoga programs, and take-home books for family literacy programs. All ISEI grants are approved by the Foundation's Board of Directors.

Since 2003, the Taylor/Clay-Price challenge gift that established the ISEI has been providing $5,000 in matching endowment funds to each school that raises that much on its own. In addition, this challenge gift has been providing $500 to each school to offset its school endowment fundraising expenses.

Although Nuestro Mundo Community School was established after this initial challenge had been made, the Foundation recently secured a new anonymous challenge gift of $5,000. The Nuestro Mundo community is now working hard to raise the $5,000 needed to earn the match and establish an endowment fund for Madison's newest public school.

The Foundation and its school-based fundraising committees have now embarked on Phase II of the Individual School Endowment Initiative. In this phase, the Foundation is working with each school community to reach a $50,000 endowment balance. A fund of this size will generate approximately $2,500 in income for the school each and every year.

Phase III of the ISE initiative is the Foundation's Adopt-A-School Program. Adopting a school involves establishment of a mutually-enriching personal and professional relationship between one of Madison's public schools and a private sector organization such as a business or a service club. The specifics of these structured partnerships will vary from school to school, but will all share the common goal of boosting student success. For the near-term future, the Foundation is especially interested in forging these partnerships for Madison's most financially-disadvantaged schools, to help address the goal of creating equity throughout the district.

For more information about the Individual School Endowment Initiative or the Adopt-A-School Program, please contact Mary Bartzen at 232-7820 or mbartzen@mailbag.com.