Fundraising for future school improvements can be tough enough, but raising money for completed projects can be a challenge.
“We needed something to make it more interesting,” said Scott Brown, executive director at Woodmont Academy, an independent Catholic school in western Howard County. “This really helps to motivate people.”
The motivator is a challenge gift from Tom Cunningham, an Ellicott City resident with four children at Woodmont. He pledged $900,000 to the school if it can come up with another $1 million by the end of the year.
The money would help pay back loans used for school construction, Brown said. In the fall of 2003, school officials purchased 66 acres, moving the school from Baltimore County to Howard.
The school has spent about $14.5 million on water and sewer, among other infrastructure needs, Brown said
Much of the school operates in five temporary buildings, and a 250,000-square-foot multi-purpose building that was completed last fall.
The $7,000 tuition for the school, which has 320 students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, covers about 80 percent of the school?s operations. The remaining financial needs are met through annual fundraising.
Cunningham?s goal was to get more people motivated to donate money, he said.
“It?s been extremely positive,” said Cunningham, who owns an Internet company in Baltimore. “People who might not have given before are giving, or they are giving more.”
The matching gift was unique, said Ronald Valenti, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
“It?s obvious that family has taken that added step,” he said.
As an independent school, Woodmont is not associated with a parish, but is approved by the archdiocese. The school complies with certain policies, such as religion curriculum, but the educational philosophy sets them apart, Valenti said.
The school follows a pedagogy known as Integral Formation, which focuses on the development of the whole person through academic, faith, character and apostolic formation, Brown said.
“They all fit together, and they are all woven into all aspects of the day,” he said.
