reflections and refractions: an overview of our year.
Published on December 22, 2022 by Sierra Jackson
This past year we've been a bit quiet, but working in the background to ensure we have a strong foundation moving forward.
Our very first year (FY 2020 - 21) saw immense growth in a short amount of time, then our leadership shifted and required us to restructure our workflow. While challenging, FY 2021-22's leadership shift allowed us the space to explore how The Endurance Scholarship could authentically show up for and continue to support its community. This year still saw continued growth:
- We hosted our first private, in-person fundraiser at The Goodman Theater in February 2022 where we raised $667.42 for our Cycle 3 awards
- We officially established our Friends + Family Board with Vivien and Aisha Jackson joining in April 2022. Vivien serves as a working board member and Aisha acts as our traditional, governing board member.
- We awarded 6 Chicagoland students of color $5K total for our Cycle 3 in June 2022
- We filed for and was approved for the Illinois Not-for-Profit Articles of Incorporation in August 2022
- We hosted our first public, in-person Brunch + Skate mixer at the Woodlawn Botanic Garden in October 2022.
- We decided to establish an emergency fund for students, reserving $500 per fiscal year to offer support for any urgent needs. If for any reason a fiscal year's allotted emergency fund is not used, we will roll the funds over to the next year's fiscal year emergency fund budget.
In full transparency, we'd love support in drafting our annual reports! A full FY 21-22 annual report has been in the works for the past four months but with our current team's capacity, finalizing the report has taken a lot longer than we've hoped.
Moving forward, we would love to expand our impact to award 20 Chicagoland students of color (10 higher education awards + 10 private elementary awards). Our total fundraising goal for FY 22-23 is $22K. Below is our budget breakdown:
Moving forward, we would love to expand our impact to award 20 Chicagoland students of color (10 higher education awards + 10 private elementary awards). Our total fundraising goal for FY 22-23 is $22K. Below is our budget breakdown:
- $20K (awards)
- $500 (emergency fund)
- $500 (marketing + materials)
- $400 (operational)
- $300 (miscellaneous)
An area we'd like to grow in is outreach/marketing. The Endurance Scholarship is open to non-traditional students + vocational/trade students in addition to DREAMERs and traditional post-secondary students (undergraduate - graduate level). Our awards are also open non-religious private elementary students; however, our applicants typically reflect a small pool of traditional undergraduates with a few graduate-level applicants, 87.5% of our private elementary applicants attend a religious-affiliated institution (we had 8 total private elementary applicants), and a number of self-reported DREAMERs. In FY 22-23, we would like to work towards more printed marketing materials and merch production to expand our reach and attract a diverse applicant pool.
message from our founder:
Thank you to all of you who have supported The Endurance Scholarship thus far! I am often a quiet and slow mover, but am always striving to reconfigure a world where we all have access to information and education. The task is large and I am not alone in this mission. I hope for The Endurance Scholarship to be sustainable and co-existing with other efforts of similar ethos; we're starting small but my vision (and the vision of others who join TES as it grows) is vast. Eventually, my hope for the work of The Endurance Scholarship is to support the travels of our students both domestically and abroad, offering new perspectives traditional academic institutions cannot solely create.
- Sierra
message from our founder:
Thank you to all of you who have supported The Endurance Scholarship thus far! I am often a quiet and slow mover, but am always striving to reconfigure a world where we all have access to information and education. The task is large and I am not alone in this mission. I hope for The Endurance Scholarship to be sustainable and co-existing with other efforts of similar ethos; we're starting small but my vision (and the vision of others who join TES as it grows) is vast. Eventually, my hope for the work of The Endurance Scholarship is to support the travels of our students both domestically and abroad, offering new perspectives traditional academic institutions cannot solely create.
- Sierra