Parents Help MKA's Annual Fund Get Off to a Great Start

MKA's 2011-12 Annual Giving drive, critical to the support and enhancement of MKA’s educational, athletic and artistic opportunities, has got off to an impressive start, with both donations and participation rates among parents seeing a significant increase from this time last year.

Some of this may be thanks to a new organizational structure that utilizes more parent volunteers, along with Trustee volunteers, in the parent solicitation process. Under the leadership of Annual Giving Chairs Denise Wagner (a Trustee and parent of alums in the classes of 2006 and 2011) and Jim Leitner (step-parent to current students in grades 5 and 3), over thirty-five parent volunteers have assumed primary responsibility to reach out to each grade level. Outreach began in October at Phonathon and continues with a phone and email campaign designed to personally connect with all parents by mid-December.

"We are so excited about seeing early benefits from the hard work of all our volunteers," comment Wagner and Leitner. "Results are already impressive, with participation among parents currently at 46%, up from 27% at this time last year. Grade 6 is leading the charge at 58%, followed closely by Grade 10 at 56% and Grade 3 at 55%. This is a tremendous vote of confidence in MKA, and we believe that we are going to see a banner year for annual giving!"

These statistics translate into $800,000 in current annual giving donations and pledges  - over $200,000 more than was received by early December 2010. And faculty giving is also strong. "The goal to match last year's employee participation rate of 90% is within reach" notes Director of Development Geoff Branigan, "and while the annual fund runs for another six months, our hope is to have pledges in hand before we close out 2011 and ring in 2012."