APEF - American Preparatory Education Foundation

January 2022 - Michelle Goudge - APEF Executive Director

You've probably heard of the APA Teaching Excellence Fund, but how much do you really know about it? As teachers and staff members, this is something that you can get excited about.

Years ago, the Builders Club was established as a subscription-based program that our parents could contribute to to help pay for teacher and staff bonuses. This is American Preparatory Education Foundation's #1 initiative.

At the beginning of 2021, we started looking at ways to improve the Builders Club. Those of you who were APA employees at that time received a survey asking for thoughts, opinions, and suggestions for the Builders Club. We also sent a similar survey to parents.

It was apparent from the survey results that there has been a lot of confusion and many misconceptions about the Builders Club. The first is confusion about the name. While this name aligns with APA's Builder's Theme, it does not give parents and staff a clear idea of what it was, so we decided that a name change was necessary. The fund's primary purpose is to retain excellent teachers and staff, so the Builders Club became the APA Teaching Excellence Fund (TEF).

The biggest misconception is that the money received doesn't go to everyone, but only a select few. This is absolutely not true. Teachers and staff at all of our campuses receive funds from the TEF. The campus of the donor does not affect where the funds go, and 100% of donations go directly to teachers and staff, free of administrative fees. These funds are used to supplement teacher and staff bonuses at the end of each year.

Even though this process has worked for many years, this is not how the Foundation wishes to continue. Supplementing bonuses isn't enough. We want to INCREASE bonuses and work towards increasing pay, which is the direction we're heading.

In the coming weeks and months, you'll see more messages about the TEF. Our goal is to have 100% of our parents donating to the fund. We know that not all of our parents can contribute a substantial amount of money each month, but whether a monthly donation is $1, $10, or $100 a month, each contribution is helping us to reach our goal. As we begin applying for grants and looking into matching gifts from other foundations and corporations, having a large percentage of our parents contributing to the fund will be of great importance. We are also looking into investing the money that we currently have, allowing us to grow our funds more quickly.

The purpose of many of our fundraisers is to raise funds for the TEF. When you participate in those fundraisers you contribute to the Teaching Excellence Fund, but we don’t expect teachers and staff members to donate directly to the fund. The Teaching Excellence Fund is a subscription-based program where we ask our PARENTS to contribute. While we never turn down a donation, staff members are not asked to donate unless they have children at APA and wish to give.

We will have pamphlets and flyers created soon and would love for you to help us build the Teaching Excellence Fund by telling parents about it. If you have ideas on how we can build enthusiasm among our APA community, please let me know. And if you have connections to companies or foundations who may be interested in participating in a gift-matching program, please pass that information on to me as well.

For more information on the Teaching Excellence Fund, please go to https://www.americanprepfoundation.org/excellence/. As the daughter of a retired teacher, I know that you're not paid what you're worth, and I'm passionate about changing that. The APEF board is, as well. Thank you for all that you do. You are greatly appreciated!

Michelle Goudge
Executive Director - American Preparatory Education Foundation
Email: mgoudge@americanprepfoundatoin.org
Phone: 801.661.1928
https://www.americanprepfoundation.org/

December 2021 - Michelle Goudge - APEF Executive Director

Are you supporting American Preparatory Education Foundation and our families in need when you shop on Amazon?

If you are one of the 300 million active Amazon users and don't yet support American Preparatory Education Foundation, this message is for you! And if you are supporting APEF as your preferred charity, THANK YOU!

AmazonSmile is essentially a cloned version of Amazon.com, but with one big difference. A portion of every eligible purchase made through AmazonSmile is donated to the nonprofit organization of your choice. You'll still get the same prices, the same products, and the same shipping options. And it won't cost you a penny more than what you're currently paying to shop on Amazon's website. On top of that, when you support American Preparatory Education Foundation through the AmazonSmile program, you are helping our APA families in need. The funds received from Amazon support the Hardship Fund, a program that gives grants to our APA families who experience financial hardship. 

It's easy to get set up on the AmazonSmile program. Instead of navigating directly to Amazon.com when it's time to buy, desktop users need only type in smile.amazon.com to ensure their purchases will generate an AmazonSmile donation. If you usually shop from an iOS or Android device, open the Amazon shopping app, scroll down to "Settings" in the main menu, and click "AmazonSmile" to turn on this feature. (Note: If you're an iOS user, you'll have to turn on push notifications if you want to shop AmazonSmile from the app.)

Once you've activated AmazonSmile in your account settings, it's time to choose your charity, American Preparatory Education Foundation. Be sure to type the full name.

After you select American Preparatory Education Foundation as your charity, every eligible AmazonSmile order you place will generate a donation equal to 0.5% of the purchase price – the sale price of the item, minus shipping and handling, gift-wrapping fees, taxes, and other service charges. 

You'll be able to tell you're shopping from the correct page if you see the AmazonSmile logo in the corner of the page and "Supporting American Preparatory Education Foundation" below the search bar. When you hover over the name of the charity, you can see additional information about it and track the donation amount you've generated through your purchases. 

0.5% is obviously not a large amount, and you would need to spend a lot of money in order to generate a significant donation, but when .5% of all eligible purchases are received from all purchasers who have chosen American Preparatory Education Foundation as their charity of choice, the donation becomes significant.

To add American Preparatory Education Foundation as your charity:

• Go to smile.amazon.com.

• Choose American Preparatory Education Foundation as your preferred charity.

• Shop at smile.amazon.com.

• Add Smile to the Amazon app on your phone.

• Open the app and find' Settings' in the main menu (☰). Tap on 'AmazonSmile' and follow the on-screen instructions to turn on AmazonSmile on your phone.

Some interesting facts about the AmazonSmile program…

• American Preparatory Education Foundation has received $11,632.20 to date

• The most recent quarterly donation was $1,102.82 received in November

• 1,139 customers have contributed to our charity since it began receiving donations in 2017

• In 2020, 100% of our AmazonSmile funds were donated back to APA families in the form of COVID-19 grants

• Jeff Bezos' net worth is $201.7 BILLION, and Amazon is worth $1.65 TRILLION! We are excited to benefit from some of these dollars for our kids. 

Thank you for your support of American Preparatory Education Foundation and our APA families. If you have questions about the AmazonSmile program, please reach out to me.