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Dear HBHA families and friends,

This year we are instituting our first Annual Campaign. Annual Campaigns are the ‘bread and butter’ of independent school fundraising, especially in light of the fact that tuition alone never covers the entire cost of a private school education. This is doubly true at HBHA, a mission-centered school that is committed to giving every child a Jewish education, regardless of family income. Our tuition is intentionally low in order to lessen the barrier to entry, and more than half our students get financial assistance above and beyond our already low tuition.  

HBHA is capable of doing this because of generous support from our major funders: Jewish Federation, Menorah Heritage Foundation, and Jewish Community Foundation. However, these contributions only cover part of the cost of an HBHA education. The majority of our fundraising comes from YOU, our families and friends. We are grateful for your ongoing and generous support, especially as we transition to an Annual Campaign. 

As with all new things, we expect HBHA’s Annual Campaign will raise many questions. Please view our FAQs for more information. 

Final Thoughts 
We need your support. Since 1966, HBHA has partnered with Jewish families in Kansas City to educate and give children the skills and passion to live meaningful Jewish lives. Please help us remain successful for the next 50+ years by supporting HBHA’s Annual Campaign today.

Feel free to contact me at atilove@hbha.edu, 913.327.8176, or Kerry Cosner, Director of Development, kcosner@hbha.edu, 913.327.8156 to discuss your Annual Campaign gift or legacy giving.

With warm regards,

Adam Tilove
HBHA Head of School

 

HBHA's Annual Campaign FAQs

Why an Annual Campaign?

Because we value your time: We are shifting to an Annual Campaign to consolidate and simplify things for our dedicated supporters. Currently HBHA friends and families are asked to give in a variety of ways, often more than once! We hope that by creating one seamless Annual Campaign, we are able to ask for your support one time each year. Our belief is this new development model will create a unified fundraising effort that will ultimately create a broader pool of donors, including alumni and alumni families. Our Annual Campaign should help us reach that goal.

What about Academy Access Program (AAP)?

In 2008, HBHA made a bold move to reduce tuition by 50% to bring in more students and enable those families struggling with the 2008 recession to continue their students’ private school education. As part of this change, the volunteers who created the Academy Access Program reached out to families to contribute all or part of the remaining 50% of tuition as a charitable donation. In the years that followed, some families have continued to give the full AAP contributions, and many families have given partial donations to HBHA. We are grateful for this ongoing support. However, the reality is that the cost of education has increased while AAP donations have decreased. For this reason, we are applying AAP gifts toward the Annual Campaign.

Additional Information: 

  • With HBHA tuition at $11,000 per student, and the cost of an HBHA education at $22,000 per student per year, under the auspices of AAP, the ask would be $11,000 per student. Within the Annual Campaign structure, HBHA will simply ask families to give to the Annual Campaign to the best of their ability. Of course, we will do this with the understanding that the school cannot hope to operate without meaningful donations. 
  • Moving forward, all donor recognition will be categorized under the Annual Campaign giving levels, allowing us to show appreciation and more accurately recognize our donors.
What about Matmidim?

In previous years, our Matmidim Jewish Studies Track was asked to raise money to support its own program. We believe this is the wrong message. Matmidim is 100% part of HBHA, and none of our other educational programs are asked to raise money. While Matimidim is an expensive program, we are all in this together – general and Jewish studies alike. As such, we ask all Matmidim families to generously support the Annual Campaign to the same extent they did in previous years. 

What about Ma’ayan?

Ma’ayan was our giving circle of those gifting $5,000 or more to HBHA. From now own, Ma’ayan will simply be one of the giving levels of the Annual Campaign, now set at $6,000. We encourage all Ma’ayan donors to continue supporting HBHA at a level that feels comfortable and meaningful.

What about the Civic Service Award Celebration?

HBHA will continue to host our annual Civic Service Award Celebration to honor members of our community, celebrate HBHA’s many accomplishments, and continue to raise the profile of our school in Kansas City. 

If you are more comfortable supporting HBHA through a gift to the Civic Service Award Celebration, we encourage you to continue to give directly to that. Your financial support is incredibly important to us, regardless of how you choose to give! At the same time, the Annual Campaign provides more flexibility in how you choose to show your support.