Fundraising is a unique challenge these days. Live, indoor charity events are not possible. Taking a donor to lunch and asking for a donation? Not so much. But, asking for supporters to donate via their phone, device or computer? That is a thing. A new, big, thing that Executive Director Frank Graffeo knew we needed to do more of. With the expert guidance of Advancement and Finance Manager Therese Bradbury, the School recently took part in “A Community Thrives” (ACT), a challenge grant for online and mobile fundraising. More than 900 organizations participated in this year’s challenge to become eligible for more than $2 million in grants from USA Today Network and the Gannett Foundation. The challenge was to raise funds online in friendly competition with other nonprofits. Early on, we dived in and met minimum challenge threshold of $3,000, which put us in the running for large grants of up to $100,000. Nonprofits beating that threshold also competed in categories for the most funds raised. We put the challenge out to our supporters to donate online via a web portal accessible on their phones and devices. ACT collected the funds and kept score. We did very well thanks to many of you reading this! You brought us in at No. 10 out of 570 charities nationwide in our category! On our first time out! What now? We wait on word about the large grant funding, which will be announced in December. Fingers crossed. We would say “wish us luck,” but we’re already feeling lucky thanks to donors like you!