Secondary Education Success Story
Elyria Catholic High School
Founded in 1949 and currently the only Catholic high school in Lorain County, Ohio, Elyria Catholic High School is a member of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. The 529-student school’s mission is to empower young adults to identify and use their God-given gifts to learn, worship and serve guided by Catholic tradition. ECHS is recognized as an EdChoice Traditional, EdChoice Expansion, Jon Peterson & Autism provider school, with a comprehensive Career Services curriculum involving nine corporate partners in Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties collaborating in redefining college and post-secondary education opportunities.
Elyria Catholic sought out DonorPoint in 2022 to help plan and execute its online fundraising strategy. ECHS initially started its 2023-2024 development campaign with a small number of initiatives, but encouraging Year 1 results spurred the school to expand its footprint with DonorPoint to include a line of Raffles, Sponsorships, Endowment/Memorial Funds, yearbook ads, online Tuition and Registration payments, and online Athletic and Club Fee payments.
$10,000 Cash Raffle
A Raffle component was added in 2023 as a supplement to augment the Panther Fund annual giving fund. The Raffle boasts a $10,000 Grand Prize, $500 2nd Prize and $250 3rd Prize, with sales tracked by student for recognition.
The current (2024-2025) school year marks the second installation of the cash Raffle, which students can effortlessly sell online by leveraging email and social media platforms to reach the broadest audience.
Supplemental Fundraisers Bring Support Throughout the Year
Athletics, Fine Arts & Yearbook Sponsorships. For donors who wish to channel their gift directly to a specific initiative, several Sponsorships help provide opportunities for students to get involved in a variety of activities and grow in their interests and passions.
High School Endowment Fund & Memorial Giving. If a donor is looking for alternative means for tuition financial assistance gifts, additional options include a High School Endowment Fund, where gifts can be made to honor or memorialize a family or specific individual, exist in perpetuity, and to which additional donations can be made at any time. Memorial Giving options allow for gifting in someone’s memory, and Planned Giving programs are available for those ECHS community members wishing to designate the school as a beneficiary in their estate plans.
Online Tuition and Fee Payments. Elyria Catholic has made making payments for school tuition and academic/extracurricular fees seamless with online Tuition payments, Registration Fee payments, and online Athletic and Club Fee payments.
The Results
With DonorPoint’s leadership, Elyria Catholic High School’s first year with a cohesive, ongoing development approach has achieved notable results. The sales of $10,000 Raffle tickets exceeded its $65,000 goal by mid-November — a full four weeks before the semester’s conclusion — and at press time sits at nearly $85,000, an ECHS record.
After a highly successful Year 2 campaign, Elyria Catholic is looking to its fundraising future with much anticipation. “We started out concentrating on a few select initiatives when we first partnered with DonorPoint,” said Becky Essenmacher, Philanthropy and Engagement Associate for Elyria Catholic High School. “Then, after such encouraging outcomes in Year 1 — and seeing the successes DonorPoint built with other high schools in our area — we upped our commitment in Year 2 with a more robust array of fundraising initiatives. And we could not be happier with the outcomes we’ve seen.
Ms. Essenmacher also extolled the user-friendliness of DonorPoint’s offering. “We did our homework on other solutions, but DonorPoint’s functionality, cost-benefit ratio, and ease of payment processing made us feel 100% comfortable consolidating all of our online fundraising and payment efforts with them,” commented Ms. Essenmacher.
