Seeds of Hope of Northern Colorado, Inc.

Seeds of Hope's (SOH) mission is to cultivate hearts and minds for Christ by striving to make a transformative Catholic education financially accessible to any family who seeks it. SOH does this through tuition assistance to low-income students in northern Colorado. Providing access to choose Catholic education impacts the trajectory that a student follows throughout life.

Faith formation, superior academics, discipline, quality leadership, and parental engagement set Catholic schools apart and contribute to a student's success in life. Each year, 850-985 Denver students attend one of 35 Catholic schools through a Hope Scholarship. Reform in education is possible through SOH which provides an alternative to low-performing public schools.

SOH provides a choice in education and affords low-income students a 20% greater chance of graduating from high school. SOH students also have a higher rate of matriculation to colleges and universities than Denver Public School students by 38.5 points. These differences impact the Denver metro communities profoundly.

Seeds of Hope is currently impacting a wider range of Denver communities since it expanded its program to include students at 34 schools instead of 10.

In the next three to five years, SOH will continue to grow across the Archdiocese of Denver (AoD) and increase the amount of tuition assistance to meet the demand from families seeking a choice for their students. SOH has supported students in 29 schools for the 2019-2020 school year. SOH anticipates an increase in applications for the 2020-2021 school year, as families learn of the opportunities available through SOH.

In partnership with key foundations and donors, SOH along with the AoD’s Office of Development and the Office of Catholic Schools is implementing a steady plan of reform, increased funding, and leadership development at the schools.

To ensure the availability, continuation, and growth of funds, Seeds of Hope works with the AoD's Office of Development for event planning, marketing, and major gift management.

SOH works closely with its Board of Directors, Finance Council, the AoD, and individual schools and principals to determine the best plan for supporting students with tuition assistance. These teams also ensure that SOH is being the best possible steward of funding received. SOH’s primary goal remains helping students attend the Catholic school of their choice.

SOH also partners with the AoD's Office of Catholic Schools (OCS) to administer the Variable Tuition Program, which helps calculate a tuition rate for a family based on its financial situation.

SOH collaborates with the Schmitz Family Foundation and ACE (Alliance in Choice for Education) to ensure that the distribution of available funds is equitable and that students are not overfunded.

Since 2007, SOH has partnered with the Children's Scholarship Fund. Other long-time supporters of tuition assistance and school funding have been The Catholic Foundation, Saeman Foundation, and the Donahue Foundation.

Since 1996, SOH has provided more than $35 million in tuition assistance to more than 23,000 students. SOH is assisting 850 students in the 2019-2020 school year with more than $1,644,000 in tuition assistance which offers Denver youth the choice to attend a Catholic school. Within designated low-income areas, Catholic schools offer stronger academics and better preparation for high school than competing Denver public schools. An independent study conducted in 2019 by Didi Fahey, Ph.D. of QREM showed that SOH students who received tuition assistance achieved 24% higher scores in Math and 20% higher scores in English Language Arts than the “Free and Reduced Lunch” public school peers.

In the long term, SOH expects to increase its impact to low-income families over the next 3 years. Since SOH opened up eligibility to families from 10 schools to all 35 (K-8) Catholic schools within the AoD, SOH will rise to the challenge of providing additional funding to cover the increased demand.