St Mark Blog

Roadmap to Success

Fundraising Campaign

The Roadmap to Success Task Force, made up of St. Mark Parishioners representing various age groups and interests, met throughout the past school year. As Ed Balint, a member of the Task Force, mentioned to you several weeks ago, the task force recommended to me that our immediate need in the school is a new HVAC system, especially as school begins earlier each year.

At the same time, Saint Mark School is growing and has experienced a rather rapid growth in the past two years. From 179 students two years ago, there are now 250 students from pre-school through eighth grade.

The heating system is old, most parts are out-of-date, and it is only 40% efficient, wasting energy and causing much higher operating costs. The wisdom given to me is that the school needs a new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, thus the abbreviation HVAC. Presently, our school is lagging behind, as we are one of only three schools without it.

The cost of the project for new HVAC is about $500,000. Not having that amount of financial resources on hand, we are undertaking a funding campaign to raise the money needed to bring the school facility up to standard.

The fundraising campaign will begin in the coming weeks and our goal is to have all pledges in by February 1st, 2012, with $225K received in cash by that date. In so doing, we will be able to install the new HVAC system, before the start of school next year. It is a tall order, but one which I and the campaign team, are confident we can achieve. St. Mark Parish, like most parishes, is always strongest, when we have a challenging goal before us.

The process of the campaign will begin in the next few weeks, involving conversations with prospective lead and major donors, and it will conclude later this year with a parish-wide appeal. Therefore, if you do not hear from us for a while, it will be because we are going through this process, which will probably take from now until early January to fully complete.

There are a few important points I wish to stress. Since this is an extra-ordinary funding campaign, it is important to continue your regular offertory contributions, because we will still need to run the parish and pay the regular bills in the process. Also, this capital campaign will differ from more recent campaigns, in that 100% of your gifts and pledges will come directly to the parish for this project. This campaign is NOT being dove-tailed with an Archdiocesan capital campaign. There will be the usual annual United Catholic Appeal by the Archdiocese, but your contribution to the United Catholic Appeal is separate from the Roadmap to Success Campaign.

Johnson-Grossnickle & Associates is the firm which is directing us through the process, under the guidance of Angela White and Dan Schipp. However, to be as cost effective as possible, most of the work of the campaign is being done by your fellow parishioners, under the leadership of co-chairs Dawn and Pat Collier and Jill and Joe Mendoza. Please keep the Roadmap to Success campaign in your prayers, and when called upon to donate, please be as generous as you can be. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated.