And so goes the SGO

All of last year, we were warning our member schools of the impending snowball: as more schools joined our SGO, as more donors supported the program, and as existing donors increased their gifts, SGO support would grow exponentially.And it did so. We closed the year with more than $2.6 million in SGO donations, well over the $1.4 million raised in the previous school year.Working with the Institute for Quality Education in Indianapolis and the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, and working with our member schools to get the word out to parents, we made our case to Indiana legislators that the SGO program needed more credits, for we knew we would run out.And we did so. By mid-June, we were returning SGO gifts, encouraging donors to resend them after July 1.Now, only two weeks into the new fiscal year, more than $300,000 in credits across the state are already gone. This pace is over a month ahead of schedule as compared with last year's gifts. What does this mean? Even with $8.5 million in available credits this year, nearly 4 percent have been taken in two weeks. That snowball is picking up speed again. Even with the bump in credits, will we run out again this year?We think so. School, church, and lay leaders: start planning your SGO fundraising efforts. Donors: consider when you'll support the program sooner rather than later. We thank our 49 member schools that trust us to manage their SGO programs, and we thank the hundreds of donors who make a quality, Christian education possible for thousands of students.