The Sudan Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization created for the benefit of the Sudan ISD school district and will provide funding not allocated by tax dollars.
The foundation was founded in late 2017 by Sudan ISD board members, Tim Rich and Clay Carr. Tim and Clay rounded up several community members that believed in this mission and volunteered to sit on the Board of Directors by January of 2018. Then the foundation was able to apply for 501(c)(3) status and start taking donations and applying for grants.
Cornerstone Donors. These five businesses and individuals are the cornerstone of the foundation and we are so thankful for each one of them.
That first year, we spent a lot of time learning how the Education Foundation works, looking for grants and donations and discussing different fundraising avenues. The foundation handed out our first grant applications to the teachers and the district in Spring of 2019 to be awarded in the fall of 2019.
In September of 2019, we hosted the First Annual Sudan Education Foundation Dinner on Homecoming weekend and it was a huge success!
We are so thankful for how our community, the businesses and alumni showed up for the students of Sudan ISD.
The foundation cooked a steak dinner, complete with stuffed baked potatoes, salad and cheesecake. Dinner was graciously served by Sudan ISD students. Generous donations from several business and individuals allowed the foundation to raffle off amazing gifts that evening. Honor and Memorial tables were set up to honor past teachers, current teachers, custodians, coaches, administration and so many more. Board members, Monty Edwards and Nancy Davis, put together an amazing video presentation of the many people who were honored that evening.
The foundation is so grateful for the people that came through that evening for our students, staff and district. We were able to raise enough money that evening to award all of our Fall 2019 grants!
Thank you to Laryn Bellar Photography for taking the pictures that evening.
In October of 2019, we awarded $10,820 in total grants to teachers and the district and promised up to $11,500 for a partial tuition reimbursement for students that pass their Dual Credit classes. We will highlight some of these amazing grant applications in future blog posts, but finally being able to award grants that first year was really special. It made all the hard work so far worth it!
We started the year 2020 with big plans of more fundraisers, different grant classes for our teachers and plans of granting lots of money in the fall of that year. As we all know, 2020 had different plans for all of us. Covid put restrictions on our school district, on how we could fundraise and so much more. Thankfully, Sudan ISD has some amazing alumni that still donated to our cause despite the crazy year. Thanks to our grant writers, Jana Synatschk and Patsy Fisher, we also received grants from Xcel Energy and the Walmart Foundations to help the foundation fund our Dual Credit Tuition grants. For those generous donations and grants received, we are so grateful!
Applications were still disbursed in the spring of 2020 and teachers applied for grants, despite teaching virtually and not really knowing what to expect come fall of 2020. In September of 2020, the foundation awarded over $17,000 in teacher and district grants and promised up to $13,500 for a partial tuition reimbursement for students that pass their Dual Credit classes.
We are really excited about some of the innovative grants that were funded and we cannot wait to share those with you in future blogs!
That brings us to 2021. The foundation is very excited about this year! We are currently planning our 2nd annual Sudan Education Foundation Homecoming Dinner in September 2021 and will have more information about that very soon. Also, our newly updated website will also be launching this week so be looking for that. And if you would love to partner or volunteer with the Sudan Education Foundation, please reach out to us at info@stxef.org or connect with a board member.
