Notre Dame closer to campaign goal with anonymous $1 million donation

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
April 19, 2007

SCOTTSDALE — Notre Dame Preparatory is $1 million closer to retiring its construction loan, thanks to an anonymous donation.

The school has raised $12.3 million of its $14.6 million goal.

Carolyn Rock, Notre Dame’s director of development, believes the $1 million gift will encourage other donors to come forward.

“We just received another $100,000 gift yesterday,” she said.

Notre Dame opened its doors in 2002. The Diocese of Phoenix purchased the campus from a closed private school in north Scottsdale and earmarked millions of dollars to turn the site into a state-of-the-art prep school.

The school’s “The Legacy Begins” capital campaign was organized to repay the construction loan, and has done an admirable job of it, said Dale M. Jensen, chairman of the capital campaign.

“For a new school, without the support of alumni, to have achieved 85 percent of its goal in such a short time is an impressive achievement,” he said in statement released by the school.

In the same statement, the anonymous donors explained why they felt compelled to contribute to the capital campaign.

“We have been very blessed and fortunate and we believe it is important to give back to our community,” they said. “Our experience with Notre Dame has been outstanding from the beginning.”

Though the donation has brought Notre Dame closer to its fundraising goal, Rock said receiving such a large gift so late in the game didn’t surprise the school.

“When the campaign began, the school had a very small potential donor base of only 200 families and no alumni,” she explained. “We knew at that time that many of the gifts would come from future families that were not yet at the school.”

At present, Notre Dame has an enrollment of 860 students and will be celebrating its third graduation ceremony this May.

Rock noted the academic and athletic accomplishment already achieved by the young school. In its five-year history, the school has had several National Merit Scholarship finalists and has won state championship titles in golf, basketball, tennis and hockey.