Organization
De La Salle Middle School is dedicated to transforming children and their community through innovative education. De La Salle is a community-based, co-ed, middle school applying the Nativity Miguel model to help students from low-income communities catch up to grade level, remediate key learning gaps, acquire key social and life skills, and engage in other enrichment opportunities. They fundraise to send their students to high-performing area high schools and provide ongoing support to help them succeed in high school and attain continuing education. The average student from their community has a 45% chance of graduating from public high school. Students attending De La Salle show a 96% high school graduation rate, and early studies show an over 60% graduation rate from continuing education.
Partnership 1
In preparation for strategic growth, De La Salle wanted to develop more consistent, ongoing giving. The Brown Sisters invested in the launch of a monthly auto-gift program. We helped fund the development of this infrastructure, and then provided a matching grant to help encourage donors to commit to this initiative. Primary targets were new and lapsed donors, as well as board members to increase board giving and engagement. Commitments to the monthly auto-gift program counted towards the match (For example, a $100/mo commitment = $1200 toward the match). This generated a significant increase in new, monthly giving – giving which will continue annually as long as excellent donor care is maintained. Early results show these giving levels to be largely maintained.
Partnership 2
De La Salle wanted to start a Business Renaissance class to help students learn the business of the school, engage in fundraising, and develop their own small business to learn the art of money management and entrepreneurship. Each student was given seed money to start a small business of their choice. They had to determine the plausibility of partnerships, as well as pricing, margin, etc, and sold their wares at an annual school event. The Brown Sisters provided seed money for this initiative.