River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Development Meeting
Date and Time
Monday April 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Location
River Valley Charter School Middle School Great Room
River Valley Charter School welcomes your participation at Board meetings. The purpose of a public meeting of the Board of Trustees (“Board”) is to conduct the affairs of the organization in public. Your participation assures us of continuing community interest in our school and assists the Board in making the best decisions for our school. To assist you in the ease of speaking/participating in our meetings, guidelines are provided at the bottom of this agenda. All materials for all board and committee meetings, are available on our Board on track public portal found at rivervalleycharter.org.
Committee Members Present
C. Getz, E. Rankin, K. Kuse, M. Connerton, M. Curcio, T. Murdy
Committee Members Absent
E. Bradley, J. Leslie
I. Opening Items
A.
Call the Meeting to Order
B.
Record Attendance
C.
Approve Minutes
II. Development Initiatives - Winter -> Spring
A.
Annual Fund Update
Discussion about Birdhouse and how we can partner with Birdhouse to host a fundraiser in Amesbury. What would the draw be? How would we raise money? A band? or DJ? Let's find out what the details are from Crystal and go from there? Call it a Fundraiser.
Gala will be for spring.
We should invite city council and G Vining.
B.
Connecting with PA
Tanya M. reminded everyone that there is Teacher breakfast and luncheon
Glo Dance Friday, May 16 6-8PM Middle school
For now it is important that PA stay under Development because PA being linked to development prevents separate fundraising, which has been confusing in the past.
Ask teachers about timing for read a thon 2026 - February vacation week could be included.
Karen K. shared that the Annual Fund has raised $25,000 not including the read a thon.
Fund raising software update:
Donor Perfect is the new development software that RVCS has committed to using. The previous software didn't have adequate features. This will be helpful for development efforts overall because of the features that allow communication, relationship building.
$14,000K from Read a thon - first check has been received.
Need to define giving levels for the annual fund for next fall.
Families will be familiar with the process and expect the communication re: annual fund giving/fundraising for the school/needs.
Next year, annual report will include family names and will have an option for people to remain anonymous.
Keep the idea of the "tree" for creating a visual cue in the school lobby to remind people that the annual fund is on and shows progress. In the past this approach was used (note: Lucinda made the tree). Focus on the percentage of families that are involved. Let's work to determine who has a vision for the execution of the tree visual and implementation so we are ready when the time comes.
Ideally a high percentage of board, faculty and even staff contributing to the financial well-being of RVCS.
Annual Report 2025 - share thank yous with the community
NOTE: connect with Community Giving Tree to set up a drive and have her visit