November 2008

Since I last wrote the milestones have been numerous: On October 7th Hilltop offered a tour of its future home and held a school-wide meeting at which we reviewed the 18 month timeline leading up to this moment, and presented the building timeline of the project (it's fast). Just one short week later Hilltop's historic ground breaking was attended by well over 150 people including alumni, grandparents, special friends, the entire student body, and folks associated with the building of the school from architects to engineers to town planners.

 

Since I've been following the election closely I've become enamored with statistics, and in looking over our donations to date, some interesting statistics emerge:

• In the nine months since the committee was formed the Capital Campaign has received pledges and donations from 83 unique donors.
• 23 current families have already donated to build their new school (out of 90+, so we have some more work to do here!).
• The mean (or average) gift to the campaign is $26,516.
• 33% of the gifts have come from parents who have been with the school on average three or less years.
• 30% are from alum families, and an additional 25% of the gifts are from alumni themselves.
• Only five gifts are from folks not directly related to a child at Hilltop, meaning we have not yet begun the stage of the campaign where it reaches out to a broader community.

This month our fundraising surpassed the $2.4 million mark. Although this sounds impressive, we are now striving to meet a new and ambitious goal of raising $1.0 million in the next 10 months. Because, if we can demonstrate that we have raised $250,000 by February, we can in all likelihood commence construction on the Middle School Addition in this first phase of the campus buildout. It would be ready next fall, at the same time or shortly after the current building is finished. There are many compelling reasons to accelerate the building of the Middle School addition: It will be much less costly to build while the site is fully a construction zone; it will enhance our recruitment of middle school students during this year's Admissions season; and, we can harness the momentum of the Capital Campaign to Hilltop's advantage. The next several months are critical in terms of our ability to generate gifts that will enable this ambitious but beneficial scheduling to forge ahead on a desirable timetable.

If you have already given to the campaign, thank you once again for the generosity that you and so many others have shown to Hilltop Montessori School. If you have yet to give, please consider making a donation to enable the Middle School Addition to move forward in this phase of the project. As Madeleine and Michael say in their letter on why they gave, "What have you been waiting for?!"

All best,
Melany Kahn Chair,
Capital Campaign

P.S. Some of you may not know we are actively looking to hire a full-time Development Director. If you know of any good candidates, please send them our way!

This Capital Campaign Update was combined with a Facilities Update. You can download a pdf file of the mailing with color photos of the groundbreaking and the rest of the news.