The race is on with a “Spring Sprint for Scholarships” for the South Jersey Scholarship Fund (SJSF). From May 3 to June 30, the Board of Trustees for the Fund hopes to raise $50,000 for scholarships to help families stay in Catholic schools.
“So many of our school families suffered financially during the pandemic,” said Mariann Gilbride, a member of the Board of Trustees for the scholarship fund. Director of Development for the Diocese of Camden, Gilbride sees her connection to the fund as a personal investment.
“I was one of six kids, and my parents sent us all to Catholic school. There were things we did without because my parents made that commitment,” said Gilbride, whose three grown children also attended Catholic school in the Diocese of Camden. “Today it’s even harder with families paying a much larger share of the cost,” she said.
The South Jersey Scholarship Fund was set up under 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is separate from the diocese and managed by an independent Board of Trustees. Every dollar in the fund directly supports student scholarships, and deposits cannot remain in the fund for longer than two years.
“It’s not an endowment fund,” said Gilbride. “It exists for today’s families to meet today’s needs.”
Among those families are the Okparas, whose children attend Saint Cecilia School in Pennsauken.
“The money we received for our children to attend Saint Cecilia School is greatly appreciated. It has allowed us to keep our children in Catholic school; something we value and respect,” they wrote in a recent thank you letter to the fund trustees.
In the current school year, the need for tuition assistance was $9.7 million. Schools met approximately 80% of that need through a combination of sources, including fundraisers, individual donors, local scholarships, contributions from parishes, and a distribution from the SJFS. This year’s SJSF distribution was just over $50,000, shared among all 29 diocesan schools. Seventy-five families benefited from SJSF support.
“With 20% of unmet need — nearly $2 million — there is so much more we could do by growing the fund,” said Gilbride.
Since its inception in 2001, the SJSF has raised over $3 million through a variety of fundraising efforts. Bishop Sullivan has often suggested contributions to the fund in lieu of gifts when individuals ask him what he would like for his birthday.
The Spring Sprint is the first direct appeal in many years. With several new members, the fund’s board is eager to launch this effort for the fund’s future.
“We have added some really great board members since January [of this year]” said Tom Iacovone, who joined the board in 2016. He said expanding the board offers a deeper reach into the community, and he sees the fund as a way to support students and families across the diocese, without focusing on individual schools.
“There’s a real need out there to provide another vehicle for families who want a Catholic education but might be struggling financially,” said Iacovone.
Donations to the South Jersey Scholarship Fund are accepted all year long. The Spring Sprint is a concentrated effort to strengthen scholarship opportunities in all schools for the coming school year. For more information and to make a contribution, visit http://bit.ly/SJScholarshipFund or call 856-583-6125.
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