Thank you for visiting this support page. If you are here you have an interest in finding out more significant ways to help the Center reach its mission. The best way to find a fit for your ability to give and heart for the ministry is to meet with the executive director or the development director. All gifts to the Center must meet the Center's Gift Policy.
Giving to the scholarship need at Champion Christian School and Preschool
As you read our supporters' newsletter the Center Advocate you will realize that one of our most significant needs is to fund financial aid. As we have shared, between 50-60% of our student population at CCS are eligible for free and reduced lunches. Because of the area we serve, this financial need is critical. Currently, we need to raise between $250,000 and $300,000 a year to fully fund the financial aid program.
Giving to help Christian Schools and Counseling Centers engage in non-profit Public Policy Work
The Center keeps working to help different organizations and networks to be more involved in public policy relating to ministry and Christian values. We are looking for individuals who have a heart for supporting this work financially. Read more here and please contact the development office if you are interested in this work.
Giving by businesses and individuals can help fund either of these above needs.
Giving for Businesses
Pennsylvania businesses that are NOT a sole proprietorship can participate in the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) or the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) that allows a business to redirect their state taxes and give them to the Center's financial aid program. This credit is available every year! This is truly a win-win situation for businesses wanting to support local education. Individuals can participate by joining our own approved LLC and donate all or part of their tax liability and then get a pass through credit that they can use on their individual taxes. See more at the Center's EITC website at www.champion.org/developmentpage/eitc
However, we are looking for individuals and businesses to take the lead to advance the mission of the Center. If you would like more information about any of these avenues to express leadership through financial giving, please contact Barb in the development office for additional information.
Some of the ways of sacrificing more significantly are outlined briefly below:
Tax Enhanced Giving
There are ways to utilize the benefits of the tax code for individual and businesses at a variety of levels to utilize monies that would normally be distributed to the state or federal government by either a donor or his/her estate which can be allocated to the Center. Although these take some work to match, there are ways to make sure your money is distributed the way you would like rather than how governing officials would like. Some quick examples:
Tax Deferred Giving
Tax Break: Individuals can give up to $100,000 out of their IRA to the Center and not pay taxes on the interest earned. Contact us to help avoid earned interest taxes and take advantage of personally redirecting your tax liability to the Center's mission! You must hurry to take advantage of this.
For example, normally if someone wanted to make a charitable contribution they could up to 50% of adjusted gross income. The IRS has enhanced legislation that allows, for a limited time, the ability to include 100% deductibility of up to $100,000 for funds donated to a charity from your IRA. This is treated separately so as not to affect normal deductibility of other charitable contributions as well. This means that someone with an IRA account of any size can transfer up to the full $100,000 dollars with no tax implications. Additionally, if desired, the balance of the IRA can then be directed into a bonus paying IRA annuity that will in effect repay all of most of the amount donated.
*Estate and other types of deferred giving. There are a variety of ways of helping to redirect your tax liability to the Center if you are willing to work with us and other financial professionals to seize these opportunities. Although some of them seem more complicated, they really are not when explained in the context of tax law. There are ways to give assets to the Center that will allow you to avoid the tax liability and still utilize the principal, and other options for your estate and longer term needs.
*You may have spent your lifetime tithing on your income and providing extra offerings to ministries such as the Center. Have you ever considered tithing on the income of your estate investments? What would happen if you would consider in your long term planning giving 10% of your estate to the Lord's work at the Center? Think what would happen to some of the needs that we have talked about above if 10 people would do that?
In-Kind and Cash Gifts
There are some significant needs that the Center has that will need to be provided by some people who have the ability to give more deeply. Some of the needs and direct benefits are summarized below:
1. Ongoing Financial Aid Need. A national survey released put our parent's incomes in the lower third in the nation. You can read what we need currently and what we need to grow. A gift of 2 million dollars would be needed to match our current estimated need, with ongoing small growth and inflationary tuition increases. Since we operate on a cost based tuition system at CCS, we charge a tuition that it actually costs to educate a child. We don't charge people who can afford it more than they can pay.
2. A Gym Complex. We need a place to hold community meetings, gym classes, have a real home court for our basketball teams, and exercise rooms. We have the engineering estimates on this project at costing $1,250,000. We have our lead gift in. Would you be interested in investing in this tipping point project for the Center?
3. STEM RESOURCES and Technical Infrastructure. We are in the process of needing to leverage an additional $40,000 project to raise teaching resources for specialized stem instruction in areas like robotics, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
What would it mean to provide a legacy for someone that you knew embodied the types of things that the Center is offering? Would there be someone whose name would be a symbol of their lifelong dream to make a difference for the Kingdom of Christ? For this area? For this culture? It will take that kind of giving to move intentionally and aggressively into the future.
Ongoing regular giving
The Center has been built on regular everyday people giving of themselves and their resources to see the work here advanced. It is amazing to look at the amount of $1000 - $3000 gifts that built this current campaign. Those were matched with some significant giving from foundations and others to make this project successful. But for those who can give only smaller gifts, I believe the Lord lays a spiritual foundation in that gift that opens the door for others. We need and rely every day on the $50, the $100, and the $1000 gifts to make this place run. Please do not mistake my challenge as an ignoring of the significance of those gifts. In that way, there are some very helpful ways to support the Center:
1. Visit the Center's development page at www.champion.org/developmentpage to see how to help on a regular basis.
2. Look for the things that you have in your attic, business, or in your sphere of influence to give. Some of these things are listed on our needs list click here.
3. Ongoing regular support of any amount is significant to our budget.
4. Giving of your time at the Center to help with construction, cleaning, painting, grounds work that are ongoing all of the time!
5. What specialty items might you have access to that would help (and provide you with a tax deductible in-kind gift amount)?
*CONSTRUCTION OF A PAVILION
*ABILITY TO BUILD A WALKING TRACK ON OUR ATHLETIC FIELD
*PROVIDE CHAIN LINK FENCING ALONG THE EDGE OF THE SOCCER FIELD
As the Lord would have you to gather more information, please feel free to do that. There will be no pressure, as we are only looking for investors in the work here for eternity.