Ways To Give

We cherish the individuals, the businesses, and the foundations that help us to improve continuously, serving our students and their families.  That help takes several forms – donations of funds, donations of goods, and volunteering of services.  Our thanks go out to you.

We are an educational public charity by the IRS code (501(c)(3)) – thus, your gifts are tax-deductible, but, more than that, we are a community of people dedicated to education – our LCA families, our faculty, our board, and our friends in the greater community.  We are proud to offer you the opportunity to build something bigger than each of us. 

Our federal from 990 as a non-profit organization and our financial statements are viewable.

 

Our finances are stable, thanks to all those who donate funds. Good in kind, of course, are equally valuable, but funds pay the bills – we can’t get our vendors to accept barter!  Tuition brings in 92% of operating costs, on average; this is typical of private schools.  To keep valuable programs going and to develop new programs, we ask for funds.  We have an Annual Fund campaign; we run fundraiser events – including Food for Thought as a great community event; people make purchases via our business partner links that give us rebates.  You can also buy our images from our travels in other countries. You can learn more about these opportunities on our pages or by contacting us personally.

Furnishings, educational equipment and supplies, cleaning supplies, … these all help us provide a great environment for our students and our teachers.  We’re open to many donations of goods.  Please contact us if you have items you believe we might need.  We also list items we’d like to have.

Volunteers got us started, and they keep us going.  When we opened in our first location on the Downtown Mall, our friends were there, painting, cleaning, building furniture.  Our board member worked hard even before that, helping us incorporate, find that building, recruit students and teachers, and much more.  Our LCA family members and friends work regularly at cleaning, fundraising, business planning, and more, joining our full-time volunteers Lou Ellen and Vince and IT/Web/business guru David.  We offer many rewarding opportunities to join in.

This is a long list!  To date in November 2016, donors from 21 businesses, 3 foundations, and 202 individuals have donated over $120,000 in funds. Forty-eight businesses and 125 individuals provide us with goods in kind. Our list of 60 individuals who’ve volunteered services is certainly incomplete.  You can find all these generous people and institutions listed on our pages for funds, goods, and volunteering. We hope to add your name.

Using Our Donations

Some of our notable programs and attributes are:

In All Subjects:

We maintain small class sizes (maximum 15, median 10, average 9), enabling all students to have individual attention

Classes in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish:

Our teacher is a Nanjing-born native speaker and the recipient of awards from the Chinese government for teaching Chinese to non-native speakers

Middle School:

We created a broad and deep curriculum with advanced science and technology classes and special classes in social studies, computer programming, special topics (recently, Chinese history and geography, biogeography)

Special Facilities and Equipment:

We have high-tech laboratory equipment and supplies, both from new purchases made with donated funds and from the long scientific careers of our science teachers.  We have a networked weather station with extra sensors for solar radiation and sky radiative temperature.

Student Projects:

A notable one is the construction of a light-up periodic table of the chemical elements controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer and our own custom-designed and custom–made logic board

Singapore math:

We use it throughout the grades

Expert teachers:

We keep up our competitive salary rates, which are also equal across all teachers as a principle of ours.  We get donations of teaching equipment and supplies, supplementing the purchases we make from donated funds.

Supporting the students’ physical, emotional, and social growth:

Playground and sports equipment: many items, such as playhouses and a tennis ball-return net, are from direct donations of goods, while others, such as tennis racquets, tumbling mats for playground safety, a climbing dome, and a teeter-totter, are from donated funds.  We are looking at upgrades in the play area surfacing.

We have supported teacher training in sex education and in phonics/dyslexia remediation.

Thank You to Our Donors

Donors have reached us via pledges in our five Annual Fund campaigns to date, in an online campaign for science equipment on the GoFundMe site, in unsolicited donations, and via our applications to foundations for grants.  These funds have come for 21 businesses, 3 foundations, and 195 individuals, from our beginnings in 2007.  We are pleased to list them below

Donations by Businesses & Foundations

Donations By Individuals