Bright Futures Fund
Faith in Learning
Mission
The mission of Bright Futures Fund is to provide financial assistance to families, students, and schools within the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The Fund strives to ensure that high-quality, values-centered education is affordable to everyone. The Bright Futures Fund works to break the cycles of poverty, by building new foundations of education and faith helping students in need receive a Catholic education. The overall goal of Bright Futures is to truly end the inter-generational cycle of poverty in the communities where our schools are located. The primary purpose of Bright Futures is to offer positive education opportunities to youth in a safe, value-centered environment. We will further our tax-exempt purpose by providing financial assistance, in the form of monetary grants, to our schools within the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Such monetary grants shall be used to support such schools' general operating expenses and programmatic expenses as well as to provide student scholarships to reduce the financial burden of school tuition on the families of enrolled students.
Ruling year
2016
Executive Director
Mr. Jeremy Lillig
Main address
20 West Ninth Street, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64105 USA
Formerly known as
Strong City Schools
EIN
46-1012192
NTEE code
Scholarships, Student Financial Aid, Awards (B82)
Emergency Assistance (Food, Clothing, Cash) (P60)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2023, 2022 and 2021.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Bright Futures Fund diligently works to reduce the inter-generational cycle of poverty in the neighborhoods where our schools are located. The schools are both in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri. Our students face significant challenges of poverty and other barriers to learning. The urban core has much higher levels of unemployment, drug usage, crime, language barriers, and other negative environmental issues. Demographics of students at our schools include the following indicators: • 99% of students participate in the free and reduced lunch program. • 98% of students receive tuition assistance for educational support. • 83% of students are of minority heritage, including 69% who are Hispanic/Latino. • 61% of students are English Language Learners. • 25% of students receive Title I services.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
We provide tuition assistance scholarships to 98% of our students. All families are served without distinction. Currently, $2,500 is the average amount of our scholarships. This covers approximately 48% of the average cost to educate a student at $5,200. Last year, we provided over $1,000,000 in scholarships. Our program's procedural process is that we utilize a sliding fee scale to determine the amount of tuition assistance we can provide each student. Our schools are more than an educational institution for our families. Our schools are an important participant in the local neighborhoods where we are located. We have several schools in some of the poorest communities in Kansas City. The urban core has much higher levels of unemployment, drug usage, crime, language barriers, and other negative environmental issues. Our schools are known to be something very good and positive in the communities. We provide a safe haven for over 400 students.
St. Joseph’s Emergency Fund Program
The St. Joseph’s Assistance Fund was introduced in 2013. It provides financial assistance, food and grocery store gift cards to school families experiencing a major economic crisis. The program was initiated in response to growing evidence of hunger among student families, and ongoing poverty-linked crises among school families every year. Helping student families in crisis with food and other basic needs reduces barriers to learning caused by hunger and family stress. Based on previous year's experience, we estimate that at least 100 school families facing an economic crisis will be assisted next school year. Household incomes of families served in the pilot averaged $18,000 per year, and school families often include undocumented immigrants who do not have access to public safety net services. Donated food and grocery store gift cards was provided to families in need throughout the year.
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) developed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students per teacher during the reporting period
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of students per classroom during the reporting period
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students at or above a 90% attendance rate
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students who perform at average or above on standardized testing
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of students who receive scholarship funds and/or tuition assistance
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Ethnic and racial groups, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Tuition Assistance Scholarships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Bright Futures Fund’s mission is to end the inter-generational cycle of poverty in our urban core neighborhoods. We provide financial assistance for families, students, and schools. We strive to ensure that high-quality education is affordable to everyone.
The Bright Future Fund’s primary purpose is to offer positive education opportunities in a safe, value-centered environment. We provide financial assistance to our schools. Grants will support general operating and programmatic expenses and provide student scholarships to reduce the financial burden of school tuition.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We provide tuition assistance scholarships for our students. We provide financial assistance to our schools. Grants will support general operating and programmatic expenses and provide student scholarships to reduce the financial burden of school tuition.
We also provide programs aimed at strengthening the family and supporting parents in their child's educational journey.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
All of our teachers are certified. School excellence is demonstrated through:
A) Accreditation by the Missouri Chapter of the National Federation of Nonpublic Schools; and by the national AdvancED organization, one of only 30 U.S. diocesan districts fully accredited by AdvancED and commended for a commitment to the underserved.
B) Outstanding daily attendance of 96% despite poverty and other barriers to learning, a critical behavior with a positive impact on academic performance.
C) Students scoring on average 2.21 grades above their current grade level on standardized tests.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We are now in our 33th anniversary. Since our inception, we have provided over 32,000 scholarships to over 15,000 families, investing over $86,000,000 in urban core education. We obtained our 501 (c) (3) status from the IRS in 2014. The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph graciously provides our administrative costs. Therefore, 100% of the funds we raise we can apply directly to programmatic expenses.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Bright Futures Fund
Board of directorsas of 04/12/2022
Mr. Frank Uryasz
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Term: 2018 - 2023
Robert Paredes
Abbie Connelly
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Lamar Hunt
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Jo Anne Karr
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Lisa Kremer
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Steve Pierce
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Brian Switzer
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Frank Uryasz
National Center for Drug Free Sport
Jeff Weinrich
Spectranetics
J. P. Latenser
Neff Packaging
Danny Welsh
CPA
Will Nulton
Attorney
Catherine Miller
Educator
Bob Strohm
Cyderes
Fr. Randolph Sly
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
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