1. What are the details of the $250,000 matching gift challenge?
Answer: The most important detail is that you must be a Legacy Partner in order for your gift to be matched. Click here to see an actual copy of the $250,000 Matching Gift challenge document we received.
2. If I am currently a Legacy Partner and increase my gift, will the amount of my increase be included in the $250,000 Matching Gift?
Answer: No. The terms of the $250,000 Matching Gift require that you be a new Legacy Partner. But we do have over $30,000 available from a $60,000 matching gift challenge to match your increased giving. Your increased giving will be matched (until the balance of that challenge is used up) and will be a great blessing to the school!
3. How can I make a gift to the school?
Answer: You can give from the secure link on the school website. Or, contact the school at 616-669-2270 to make alternative arrangements to give a gift.
4. What is the “Legacy Partner Campaign?”
Answer: The Legacy Partner Campaign is an organized effort to recruit people and businesses to become a Legacy Partner. Every new Legacy Partner we recruit between 11/1/18 and 6/30/20 will have their gift matched until we use up a $250,000 match. Click here for all the details about the match.
5. What are we going to use the money from the $250,000 matching gift challenge for?
Answer: Rule #4 on page #2, in the Rules For Participation section of the $250,000 Matching Gift challenge document states: “To qualify for the Challenge, the Legacy Partner donation must be designated to a Libertas Christian School faculty or staff position, not a specific individual, or other expense. The Legacy Partner can designate the position, or the position can be designated by a representative of Libertas Christian School.” In other words, the amounts donated to the school for this $250,000 matching gift challenge are going to be used for teacher compensation.
6. Will we use the money to buy the school building?
Answer: No. See the answer to question #3. It is important to understand how the school is funded. Currently the school has an operating budget of approximately $1,000,000 annually. Approximately $750,000 of this amount is funded by tuition. The other $250,000 is funded by gifts to the school. The objective of the Match Donor is to create $250,000 in annual recurring revenue through Legacy Partners. This will bring stability to the funding of operations, which is a requirement of large donors before they will consider making large gifts to a capital campaign to purchase the building. In other words, large donors do not want to help with the purchase of a building for a school that is at risk of closing due to under-funding. The Legacy Partners Campaign is an important next step in the sequence of steps moving toward the purchase the school property.
7. What happened to streaming the “Something Big Has Happened!” meeting on line?
Answer: Unfortunately we ran into technical difficulties. We are learning! We hope to take what we learned from this event and do better next time. We would like to develop the technical competency to stream all events in the future.
8. Can we continue to text questions to 616-422-4451?
Answer: Yes. The Financial Services Group (FSG) has dedicated this line for this purpose. It will be used in two ways: At meetings, the default position is not to reply to each question individually because of volume. The questions will be answered in a post-meeting FAQ. At times other than meetings, the default position will be to answer questions individually as they are received. We hope practice will improve understanding about school finances and improve communication with you!