GISD Education Foundation sets this year’s goal at $35K

GONZALES — Gonzales ISD Education Foundation kicked off their annual fund-raising campaign at the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday coffee. GISD Superintendent Dr. Kim Strozier and GISD Education Foundation president Felipe Deleon invited businesses and individuals to help contribute to their new goal this year of $35,000.

Created in 2011, The Gonzales ISD Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization created for the benefit of the school district and provides funding not allocated through tax dollars.

“This is the fourth year and it’s amazing,” Strozier said. “Not every school district has a foundation. It’s not easy.”

“The total amount that we’ve donated in the past three years is a little bit over $58,000 back to the school district,” Leon reported, “so we’re very excited about that.”

The Gonzales ISD Education Foundation’s mission is to partner with the community to provide resources to enrich teaching, inspire learning and maximize innovated opportunities for all students in the Gonzales Independent School District.

“We’ve got a court of about 20 people, approximately,” Strozier explained. “They meet every month, they meet more than once a month in subcommittees and what they do is hard work. It’s work to support our school district and everything they do goes back to the classroom through teacher grants or recognitions for kids and teachers and we’re just so fortunate to have a foundation.”

Leon introduced some new ways to donate that make it easier for business and individuals to give to the foundation.

One way is through the school website. Simply go to www.gonzalesisd.net, hover over ‘Departments’, click on GISD Education Foundation, then click on ‘Ways to Donate.’ From there you can go to the link that says “Donate Online” to pledge your donations.

Another way to do is through AmazonSmile.

For Amazon shoppers there’s not much work to do. Go to smile.amazon.com, log in and choose the school as the charitable organization you want to donate to.

There is no added charge to your shopping cart. Amazon donates 0.5 percent of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile to the foundation.

“That’s something new, we haven’t tried it,” Leon said. “We’re excited that you can spend whatever you’re going to spend and part of that goes back to the foundation.”

Other way to donate includes by mail (sending donations to PO Box 157, Gonzales).

One final thing that was introduced this year is their ‘Honor an Educator’ program.

“You can honor an educator,” Leon said, “you can donate on behalf of an educator in the school district.”

The Gonzales ISD Education Foundation is totally supported through donations of businesses and individuals and people who care about our schools. Their hope in that individuals, families and businesses in Gonzales will support our organization so that they can continue to provide meaningful programs for the schools in the years to come.

At a time when the state is reducing support for our schools, the Gonzales ISD Education Foundation is looking to our community to help provide additional resources to help meet the demands of educating our children. The entire community benefits from public education, as the quality of life and economic growth are directly related to our quality of education and our school systems. It is vital that we as a community help to bridge the gap between the funds the state provides for basic education and the money our schools need to prepare students for the success in the workforce and in life

“Our foundation is young,” Strozier said. “We’re in the fourth year and to be able to contributed that much money back in teacher grants to support the school district’s students is phenomenal.”