Why Support Lutheran Education?
ESM is thankful for the many partnerships that allow us to offer excellent and affordable Christian education.
As an accredited parochial school, Emmanuel-St. Michael is funded by support from our many partners. ESM is blessed to be the primary ministry of our association congregations, Emmanuel and St. Michael, who together contribute 28% of our operating costs. Our school relies upon that support, tuition, grants, fundraising, and donations to our Eagle Fund to enable our Christian education community to thrive.
Your gift to ESM can make an immediate and lasting impact upon our students. We invite you to consider helping us provide the exceptional resources that support learning, faith and community. Your gift may allow a student to have access to Christian education through provision of a scholarship. It may offset the cost of education so that tuition for all students is affordable. Or, it may equip our school with curriculum, technology, resources, or capital improvements that provide for excellence in Christian education.
We offer various methods by which you can make an important financial gift to our school. Each gift is a special blessing and forms a valuable partnership with us in providing education for life and faith for eternity. Please contact Dr. Ben Stellwagen at 260.422.6712 with any questions about how you can make a difference.
Principal
THE EAGLE FUND
Gifts to the Eagle Fund provide for items in our “greatest need." These gifts help keep tuition affordable for all students, supports special programming, and funds projects that might otherwise be missed.
HIS KINGDOM FIRST - Getz Campus Expansion & Renovation
St. Michael is experiencing a time of abundance as its ministry, church, and the ESM family continue to grow! This blessing has created an urgent desire to improve facilities to better serve the needs of the church and school while embracing the mission to connect to Jesus and others. At an estimated $8.8 million, the project will make some transformational changes: secure entrances to school and church, meeting and office space for student services personnel, an additional preschool classroom, a large multi-purpose room, a shared music space for ESM and St. Michael’s Academy of the Arts, a cafeteria, and several other improvements. The school will benefit from the church’s commitment to safety, space, and sustainability. Please get familiar with the project and consider ways to contribute to this incredible gift to ESM!
IN ALL GENERATIONS - Union Campus Renovation
In 2022, Emmanuel Lutheran Church began a long-needed process to renovate and improve our Union Street school building. The renovation has transformed our entire school building. In addition to outfitting our classrooms with new flooring, paint, windows, and a more robust technology infrastructure, we also updated our electrical service, installed new restrooms, and made upgrades to our HVAC system. We made improvements to the exterior, including tuck pointing of the brick facade, refurbishment of the roofing, and a covered entrance to the building on Union Street. The project to renovate the Union Street campus ended up costing approximately $7.4 million. Emmanuel is working to finish paying off the loan to make all of these improvements possible so that our Lutheran school will continue to be an excellent, Christ-centered ministry for generations to come.
SCHOLARSHIPS (SGO GIFTS)
ESM funds most need based scholarships through donations to The Lutheran Scholarship Granting Organization of Indiana (SGO). Supporting scholarship is a critical partnership, but also can provide a valuable 50% tax credit for donors. To learn more and help fund a student’s tuition visit www.lutheransgo.org.
THE ESM ENDOWMENT
Partners wishing to make a permanent gift may want to contribute to the ESM Endowment. Our endowed funds provide for student scholarships not eligible to be covered by the SGO and may soon endow positions that are core to our ministry of holistically nurturing children in their faith, learning, and relationships. These gifts are critical to ensuring a vibrant Christian education community well into the future!
THRIVENT CHOICE
Thrivent members can make a difference by directing where some of Thrivent’s charitable outreach funds go. Eligible members can direct Thrivent Choice dollars to ESM’s educational ministry, and all Thrivent members can create a Thrivent Action Team grant for a special project or event.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Small things can add up big! If you patronize retailers such as Target, Kroger, Amazon, and others that offer a community rewards program or purchase products such as General Mills or Campbell’s Soup, you can be supporting our school ministry by simply registering ESM or collecting the box tops. Learn more about ways to contribute through these community partner programs.