WINNEBAGO – Going off the success of last year’s Matching Gift Challenge, Genesis Classical Academy (GCA) is looking to continue to build through community contributions.

GCA is a non-denominational classical Christian school in Winnebago, with its curriculum focusing on three C’s: Christ, character and classical. GCA currently has an enrollment of 58 students in pre-k through sixth grade, which was added this academic year. The goal, said Headmaster Renee Doyle, is to add one grade level per academic year and to reach 100 students by the year 2020.

The Gift Matching Challenge is a donation drive, in which four donors have agreed to match donations up to $35,000 in the time frame from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

Doyle said that while some donations come from parents of the students, the majority of the money raised comes from people who previously or currently live in the six communities that students from the school are from, including Huntley, Blue Earth and Winnebago.

Last year, said Doyle, the donations were matched by donors up to $25,000. During the two-month time period, the donations exceeded the matching pledge, with a total of about $83,000 being raised.

“We’re looking for people to invest in a living legacy,” said Doyle. “We want them to be able to see the fruit of their investment while they’re still alive and then have it live on in these children.”

Doyle said that the money raised through the Matching Gift Challenge will be used for scholarships for students. Every student receives scholarships, said Doyle, with the least amount that any student receives in scholarship being set a $1,550. While tuition for each student is $6,450 to attend GCA, the highest amount that families have to pay for one student is $4,950. Additional scholarship is also given out based on the financial needs of the student.

“Our goal isn’t to turn anybody away for financial reasons,” said Doyle. “Everybody has to pay something, but we also work really hard with our families to make it affordable.”

Doyle has summed up the success of the Matching Gift Challenge to “very incredible community support,” and said that she hopes the donations this year will exceed last year’s.

“This is a complete faith walk,” said Doyle. “Every year that we are here we realize that we’re under the favor and mercy of God and we’ll be here as long as we have that community support and we will do everything we can to be faithful with the money and good stewards.”