MIA Exceeds $750,000 Matching Goal, Shifts Focus to Forever Now Endowment

Marco Island Academy has successfully reached - and actually exceeded - their $1.5 million Next Phase for the Rays fundraising goal. They now turn their attention to an even more ambitious fundraising mission: a $30 million Forever Now endowment fund.

Mark Melvin is president of the newly formed MIA Rays Squadron, whose mission is to provide a secure financial foundation for Marco Island Academy and to sustain the school for generations to come through the Forever Now endowment fund. Melvin sponsored a $750,000 matching opportunity to raise money for the Next Phase for the Rays fundraiser to raise money for the turf soccer field, sports performance center, bleacher and concession area, boys and girl’s locker rooms, practice track, and long jump area.

"Rene Champagne came to our last board meeting right after Mark announced the match and said he and his wife were going to do $250,000,” said board president and MIA founder, Jane Watt. "Our concession area is going to take the name of our former entrance, the Champagne Pavilion. We’re reviving the name. The Champagne Pavilion will now be our concession area."

“We have been involved with the school for 10 to 11 years now,” said Rene Champagne, vice chair of MIA. “My wife and I have been involved in education for many, many years now. We believe it’s very important that the island has a school system from K through 12. It gives the students that live on the island, and nearby off the island, an option on where to go to school.” “This school is always going to be small in terms of numbers,” Champagne explained. “We believe that allows more personal attention to be given to individual students. Individual attention tends to allow students to blossom, when perhaps in larger school systems they’re not capable of doing so because they don’t get as much personal attention. This has been working out famously well. The school has done extremely well.

“It’s very important to get the facility that reflects the academic standard of the school,” Champagne continued. “The new facility does reflect the kind of commitment we thought was necessary for a good school system to reflect. We’re so proud of what’s going on. The entire board, the staff and all of the instructors take a great deal of interest in the students, which we think is very important. And it shows in the results. The parents are very pleased. The students are very pleased. I think we have the best of all worlds going for us right now.”

Watt was relieved to complete the Next Phase for the Rays fundraising goal, which had a December 15 deadline.

“We had a situation that came up because we were coming to the end of the match,” Watt said. “We had gotten some smaller participation here and there - which is awesome. Because every single bit helps us and drives us forward. But we were getting nervous that we weren’t going to make the match. I was starting to sweat. I sent an email out to a couple of people and Bill Young called me. He said, ‘Jane, here’s the deal. You figure out that other $250,000. I know Rene and Tish gave $250,000 - I’m in for $250,000, but only if you raise the other $250,000 by tomorrow. Call someone, tell them they need to come in with $250,000 and I’ll match ‘em.”

“I thought, ‘How am I going to do that in 24 hours? I’m in Ohio.'  I called Hilary Noyes, our donor relations officer, and we brainstormed. But we couldn’t do it in 24 hours. I called Bill back the next day because we didn’t have it. I said, “Bill, I promise you we’re going to get it. I don’t know exactly how yet. But we’re going to do it. But can I please have a couple more days? Because I’m in Ohio and it’s really hard.' So, he says, ‘When do you get home?’ I said ‘Thursday.’ He said, ‘okay, you have until Friday.’”

“We had gotten another $150,000 in the meantime, through hard work. We were really excited. Lionel Nowell came in at $100,00 and David Gardner came in at $50,000. So, I sent a note out to the board saying, 'Please, if you know anyone who is thinking of a year-end gift, please, please, please, now is the time.’ Within five minutes of sending the email out we got notification from Jim Miller saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got the last $100,000. We’re good.’ I was so happy. Jim came in and helped us complete what needed to be done. We had a lot of other people who gave generously. So, we ended up exceeding our goal, which is awesome.”

“The MIA Rays Squadron is our new 503c,” Watt said, "which Mark Melvin is president of. That’s our next step. We’re looking forward and moving forward.”

“First of all, we need to say thanks to the community,” Melvin said, “for all of their participation. Not just for this fundraising, but for all the people who have come together with small gifts, big gifts - it all adds up. It’s all been so incredible. I know there’s been some students who have kicked in a few bucks here and there. As we move forward with the endowment, it will ensure that MIA’s future becomes solid.” 

“If we can, hopefully, at some point, become self-sustaining, so we don’t have to raise funds every year,” Melvin continued. “We’ve already started to get some initial endowment contributions from people. We’re sitting on probably, roughly, $1 million already. But we’d like to get somewhere between $20 to $30 million to really sustain the school to the level we expect going forward in the future. It’ll take us about a year before we really understand the operating cost of the new building and the new facilities. That will give us a better understanding of what the final number needs to be for the endowment. I think it’s one of the best charities that I give to because 99.95 goes right back to the school.”