NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Education Foundation (NEF) has received an anonymous $100,000 gift toward its current $1 million endowment campaign, matching the all-time high for a donation to the endowment.
“We were obviously not expecting it,” said NEF Co-President Jennifer Sanders James. “This was just a wonderful surprise.”
James said that NEF received an email about the donation on Friday. The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts manages the endowment and informed NEF of the gift.
Started in 1991, NEF is a nonprofit that funds projects and programs in Northampton Public Schools. The foundation began fundraising for the $1 million goal in 2018. With this latest donation, it has now raised more than $800,000 for the campaign.
“This gets us closer, faster,” said Martin Wohl, chair of the endowment campaign. “We’re actively looking for more donors.”
James said that NEF hopes to meet its goal by Dec. 3 to coincide with Giving Tuesday.
The goal of this endowment push is to allow NEF to give $100,000 in grants to schools every year, James said. These grants would be given on a rotating basis, with elementary schools, the middle school and the high school receiving the grants in different years.
Wohl said that, based on population, the elementary, middle and high school groups could receive varying amounts of money, not necessarily an even $100,000 each, but that the difference would be nominal. He also said schools would have to apply for the grants and explain how they would use them.
“It’s not a blank check,” Wohl said.
The NEF will continue to give out small grants — which provide up to $3,000 to educators, parents and community members for programs and research. It will also continue the Support Our Schools (SOS) Book Fund, which helps buy textbooks, library books and educational materials.
In the NEF’s previous endowment campaign, which successfully raised $1 million by 2006, Florence Savings Bank donated $100,000.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.