2023 Catholic Schools Week

SGO funds make Catholic education more accessible, give 50% tax credit

Father Jeremy Gries, pastor of Holy Family Parish in New Albany, and Amy Huber, principal of the parish’s school, share a hug and smiles after completing a “Wear-it-Or-Eat-It” challenge as part of a fundraiser for the school’s Scholarship Granting Organization fund on Oct. 21, 2022. (Submitted photo by Elijah Schultz, Silver Glass Productions)

By Natalie Hoefer

Amy Huber laughs when recalling the things she’s done as part of a “fear factor” challenge at an annual school fundraiser.

“Spinning an ‘Eat-It-Or-Wear-It’ wheel, where you have to choose to eat or wear whatever the spinner lands on,” she says. “It’s been Spam, mayonnaise, sardines, chocolate syrup—that was a good one!”

The principal of Holy Family School in New Albany—along with Father Jeremy Gries, the parish’s pastor—has had to wear a snake around the neck, reach into a bag of crickets to find a key and compete in a cracker-eating contest.

“The kids love it,” she says, and the challenges are “absolutely worth it!”

Worth it for the smiles—but also for the cause. The annual fundraiser supports the school’s Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) fund. Such funds help cover the costs of attending a private school, including every archdiocesan grade- and high school and some private Catholic schools in central and southern Indiana.

Additionally, donors to such funds are eligible for a 50% tax credit.

“It lightens the financial burden for some of our families, knowing this money is available for them,” says Huber.

SGO funds ‘critical to eligibility for voucher program’

In conjunction with the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program—also known as the “voucher” or “choice” program—SGO funds make private schools a possibility for families who could otherwise not afford such an education for their children.

“In 2011 when the voucher program passed, in law we married SGOs to the voucher program, and SGOs took off,” says John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association (INPEA).

“The SGO funds supplement the voucher program by making families eligible for it or by helping families afford private school,” including Catholic schools, he explains.

Elcesser calls the funds “critical to eligibility for the voucher program both at the kindergarten and high school level.”

For instance, Huber has found the Holy Family SGO fund useful as financial aid for incoming kindergarten students, “and then they qualify for the choice program in first grade and beyond.”

Elcesser adds that SGO funds are “especially beneficial in high schools where the voucher program still left a financial gap that made tuition unattainable.”

And thanks to a recent change to the choice program, he says, “Now a family of four can have an income up to $153,000 and still be available for SGO and choice school funds.”

‘Folks don’t realize how easy it is’

Unlike the state-funded voucher program, schools must raise money for their SGO fund. But the tax benefit sweetens the deal for donors.

“The 50% tax credit is a public incentive for private giving,” says Elcesser.

“Getting the credit is very simple from a tax perspective. A lot of folks don’t realize how easy it is. SGOs take responsibility for filing donations with the Department of Revenue, so donors just need to check a box on their tax form. And it’s not a deduction, it’s a credit—50% of what you give.”

There are “no limits on the size of qualifying contributions” to a Scholarship Granting Organization fund, according to the Indiana government website (cutt.ly/SGO). However, it notes that “the entire tax credit program has a limit of

$18.5 million for fiscal year 2022-23.” As of Jan. 17, more than $6.3 million of that amount was still available.

Part of INPEA’s agenda for the 2023 legislative session is to make the voucher program accessible to even more families, “and that includes SGOs,” says Elcesser.

When contributing to an SGO, donors can specify which private school’s fund they wish to contribute to.

Additionally, “Both the archdiocese and Mother Theodore Catholic Academies have their own SGO accounts, and donations can be made with those names listed,” says Sarah Watson, archdiocesan assistant superintendent for elementary education. “These [donations] go into a larger pool. In the case of the archdiocese, we allow schools who are in need of funds to apply to receive them.”

‘Overjoyed with … family environment and Catholic values’

Through the years, schools have gotten “more sophisticated” in how they raise money for their SGO fund, says Elcesser.

“Some integrate donations to their SGO into giving to their annual fund,” he says.

And then there’s making a principal and pastor crack eggs over each other’s head at a community fundraising event.

“There’s a carton of eggs, and only one is not boiled,” Huber says with a laugh. “I’ve gotten the raw egg before—it wasn’t pretty!”

But last year’s Oct. 21 fundraiser garnered $16,750 for Holy Family’s SGO fund, money that will help make a Catholic education possible for numerous students.

“We were able to award over $50,000 in SGO scholarships to 31 students in the 2021-22 school year, and this year we’ve helped 21 students,” says Huber.

“We definitely have had families—Catholic and non-Catholic—who wouldn’t have been able to even entertain the thought of coming to our school because of tuition and their income, but the SGO made it possible.”

One family who benefited from the school’s SGO went on to be baptized and received into the full communion of the Church, notes Huber.

“Parents are just overjoyed with the family environment here and the Catholic values that we teach that they didn’t see in their public school, but because of the SGO, they’re a part of it.”
 

(For more information on the archdiocese’s Scholarship Granting Organization, Institute for Quality Education, or for information on how to donate online or by check, go to www.i4qed.org/sgo/donors. For a list of schools with an SGO fund, go to cutt.ly/SGOSchools.) †