Direct Give Contest Kick-Off!

Dear CLIP families,

Welcome to the kick-off of our 2017 Direct Give Contest! Each year we raise funds in order to sustain our wonderful CLIP program. Regular district funds are not enough to cover both Chinese and English aspects of the program. Your contributions support Mandarin curriculum development, Mandarin classroom teaching materials, instructional aides, textbooks, Chinese cultural/enrichment activities, and more.  

CLIP is our community, and we need everyone to do their part to help. This includes donating your grade’s full recommended ask amount to sustain the program, volunteering on the CLIPCO subcommittees, and supporting CLIP in general.  The donation ask amounts are reasonable compared to other Bay Area schools who ask $800-$2000 per student (without Chinese immersion benefits), or Chinese bilingual private schools that cost more than $25,000 a year.

This year's Direct Give Campaign started on the first day of school with a pledge form in your child's first day packet. Many thanks to all of you who have already donated…we’re at 70% of goal! We’ve still got a little way to go! Given the success of last year’s contest, we’ve decided to base this year’s contest on the same rules:

1. The contest runs from Monday, October 16th, 2017 until midnight Monday, November 14, 2017.

2. Custom CLIP mini desk organizer. This prize will be awarded to every student who has donated recommended ask for their grade ($450 (K-6th grade) or $225 (7th-8th grade)) by Monday, November 14th, 2017. 

3. Year of the Dog T-shirts will be awarded to each student of each classroom (for K-5) and grade (6-8) if their classroom (or grade for the Miller students) reaches: (a) at least 90% participation rate, AND (b) at least 90% towards the dollar donation goal (as determined by # of students in the class x ask amount).  Please note that BOTH thresholds must be met.

4. Custom CLIP Lunch Cooler Bag. This extra special “grand prize” will be given to the top 3 classrooms (or grade for Miller) who raise the most donation dollars by percentage toward dollar goal.

5.  Checks made out to "CLIPCO" are preferred, however online donations are accepted via PayPal.  More information and the pledge form can be found at http://www.cusdclipco.org/donations.html

6. Corporate matches are very important to the CLIP program. Parent donation alone does not cover our fundraising goal. The corporate matching is additional to what each family donates as part of their fiscal duty to the CLIP program. They also do not count towards the donation dollar amount for the classroom, prize qualification, or Honor Roll.

7. You can sponsor another family in the CLIP program (does not have to be same classroom or same grade) but you must indicate your intent to sponsor that family clearly on your pledge form (there is a section with boxes where you can indicate the family you intend to sponsor). In addition, there needs to be consent from the family being sponsored.  You can also sponsor an unnamed family in your classroom if you want to help a family (or families) in your classroom as long you indicate your intent to do so on the pledge form. Please be assured that the CLIPCO Board and grade reps will treat the sponsorship, as well as donation information, with the utmost confidence.

8. Honor Roll - since CLIP depends completely on donations to fund the curriculum programs not covered by regular school district funds, we are grateful for the financial support of our community and would like to recognize our donors. Donors are recognized on our website throughout the school year and in the December CLIPCO Newsletter after the Direct Give Contest.

The donation amounts that qualify for the tiers below are per student.  You can indicate if you wish for your donation to be "anonymous" so that your family's name does not appear on the honor roll.

	Kindergarten - 6th grade	7th grade - 8th grade
Bronze	donation of $450	donation of $225
Silver	donation of $451 to $699	donation of $226 to $349
Gold	donation of  $701 - $949	donation of $350 to $474
Platinum	donation of $950 or more	donation of $475 or more

9.  The Direct Give Committee has the final authority on the contest. If needed, we may send clarification in future emails. Again, remember that the goal is raise funds to sustain our amazing CLIP program.  The Direct Give Committee is made up of parent volunteers who contribute their personal time for the good of the CLIP program. 

If you have any questions, please ask your CLIPCO grade rep.   Or, you can contact us directly at: donate@cusdclipco.org.

We’ll be providing weekly updates via email. Look for posters around campus highlighting our progress. During the final days of the contest, you’ll hear daily updates from us. For more information about the DGC, visit http://cusdclipco.org/direct_give.html

Thank you in advance for your continued support of the CLIP program.

Sincerely,

Margie Tsai Shen and the DGC Committee