By Mark Ambrogi
Noblesville Schools Education Foundation Executive Director Sharon Trisler saw a growing need to expand its fundraising efforts.
“The Noblesville Schools Education Foundation has long focused its fundraising efforts on events such as our annual MillerPalooza dinner and fashion show, our annual Teacher of the Year and Miller Gold Awards celebration dinner and our bi-annual Harlem Wizards basketball game,” she said. “Our work has allowed us to provide many classroom grants and scholarships, but we are seeing the number of grant applications from teachers grow as well as the number of scholarship applications, and we have come to the point that we need to move our fundraising work to a new level.”
So Trisler is pleased the NSEF has been awarded a $5,000 grant to allow Trisler to earn a certificate in fundraising management from The Fundraising School at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
The Indiana Association of Public Education Foundations awarded the grant to the NSEF as part of a program designed to bolster Indiana’s K-12 public education foundations’ impact on the state’s public education.
The certificate program consists of four, multi-day, intensive courses to teach the fundamentals for building a solid fundraising foundation to meet organizations’ financial goals.
“While I expect our signature events to continue, this grant will allow us to operate a more advanced, multi-dimensional, and strategic model of fundraising that aligns with the needs and interests of our donors,” Trisler said. “I’m looking forward to learning from seasoned fundraising professionals, and I’m grateful to INAPEF and Lilly Endowment for this opportunity. Our board of directors is passionate about the work of Noblesville Schools, and I can’t wait to see where this program leads us as we support the school district, the teachers and the children of our community.”
The NSEF provides funding for scholarships and classroom grants for teachers to expand the educational opportunities offered to their students. Since 2007, the NSEF has funded more than $200,000 in classroom and school grants, $17,460 in teacher scholarships, and $18,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors who plan to pursue a career in teaching.
