Donations

We empower our students to become bi-lingual, bi-literate, and computer literate. To achieve this ambitions goal we are always in need of items and resources to make this a reality. Textbooks, novels, new computers, workbooks for math and writing skills are always a great need. Click Here to visit our Amazon.com wish list. Here we have the books used by our students in our Literature and Reading classes. Our wish is for every student to have his own copy so that learning and literacy can take place after the school day comes to an end.

Here are some other ways to give:

The Annual Fund: Unrestricted gifts are used to support the general operating expenses of the school.  SHNS relies upon private donations to meet expenses.  The fully operational school's annual budget is $1,000,000.

Scholarship Fund: Our goal is to have a $10,000,000 endowment.   The interest from this endowment will cover half of the annual operating costs of the education of Sacred Heart Nativity School's 60 students .  The Father Mateo Sheedy Scholarship Fund, created at the time of his death, was seeded with the $25,000 benefit from his life insurance policy.  Two anonymous donors have given $1,000,000 gifts for the school's endowment.  Memorial scholarships can be arranged by families and can be added to over the years. A perpetual endowment for one of our 60 students would cost $250,000.

The SHNS Sponsor Program: "Adopt" a SHNS student with an annual gift of $15,000.  Pledges can be made quarterly, and corporate matching donations will count in the total sponsorship amount.  Students write to their sponsor at least twice a year.

High School Financial Aid: SHNS expects to assist our graduates with their private high school tuition payments.  The student who graduates from SHNS will still have special needs during his high school years so we plan to support these boys for their four years of secondary education as well.  We have a full time support person tracking their progress, be the High School liaison, and help with college applications. The cost of the Graduate Support Person is approximately $40,000 per year.

SHNS Summer Intensive: The boys spend part of their summer at the Bellarmine Summer School and part at Leadership Training Camp in the foothills of the Sierras.  This program is designed to continue the educational experience and broaden the skills of the students.  The goal is to prevent students from regressing academically during the summer months, to give them a rural out door experience, and give them teamwork skills.   The cost of the program is $70,000 for camp, $5,000 for summer school.

Master Teacher Program: Three Professional Teachers are present to not only teach classes but also to mentor volunteer teachers, helping with lesson plans and teaching techniques, etc.  The annual cost of one of these Professional Teachers is $50,000 and to endow one would be $1,000,000.

Teacher Training Program: We established an intern teacher program.   Volunteer teachers right out of college come and join our team.  These young people will be paid a small stipend for their work and we would like to give them additional benefits.  Funding for educational pursuits, such as specialized training for teaching at-risk youth and helping these budding teachers get teaching credentials, will allow our volunteer teachers to grow professionally.

After School/Saturday Program: Monday through Thursday our students participate in enhancement programs revolving around sports, cultural activities and arts.  It is important for students to have non-academic outlets to exercise their creativity.  This program is tailored to each student to facilitate well-rounded growth.  On Saturdays we would provide a combination of academic and "play" type activities.  This program recruits Bellarmine and Santa Clara Students to coach and participate in activities with our students and will have adult supervisors to guide activities.

- To Fund the Sports program:   $5,000 per year or $100,000 to endow.

- To Fund the After School program:  $5,000 per year; $100,000 to endow.

- To Fund the Saturday Program:  $15,000 per year; $300,000 to endow

Educational Equipment

Library: We started from ground zero in building our library.  We will start building up a print and digital collection (in both English and Spanish) of information to stimulate the minds of our students.  Books on tape are particularly helpful for some our students learning English as a second language.

E-Learning: The "Digital Divide" is real and our students are on the wrong side of it.  We are looking for leading technology companies or individuals to provide

- state of the art hardware, especially lap top computers for our students

- system administration

Transportation: We need a van to transport our students, at an approximate cost of $30,000.  The van will allow us to take students off campus for activities, will be used at camp and be used to take students home after the study periods when necessary.