ALBANY PARK — No matter how the Albany Park Community Center reaches the finish line in its Race to Raise $15K, the organization is guaranteed to come out a winner.
An anonymous foundation has pledged to match every dollar donated to the campaign, up to $15,000, with very few strings attached to the grant, according to Casey Smagala, director of development and community engagement at the center, 5101 N. Kimball Ave.
"This is the best type of money for a nonprofit: It's unrestricted," Smagala said.
Patty Wetli says the grant will give the center flexibility:
The center, founded in 1975, provides adult literacy classes, employment assistance to veterans and preschool for 3- to 5-year-olds, to name a few of its programs.
Though the grant is loosely linked to its workforce development initiatives, the community center has a large amount of leeway when it comes to interpreting which of its services fall into that category, he said.
It could mean providing day care so a parent can interview for a job or it could mean paying for a client's citizenship class, he offered as examples.
"This allows us to work with our clients more creatively," Smagala said.
Since the campaign launched in early October, the center has collected $2,000 in pledges and is aiming to hit the $15,000 goal by the end of the year in order have the matching dollars locked down for its 2015 budget.
There's a slight catch to the foundation's grant that will make maximizing the match a stretch: "It's called a challenge grant," Smagala said. "The challenge is to reach new donors."
The match only applies to new money collected, he explained, be it from someone who's never donated to the center before or someone who hasn't donated in the last two years. If an annual donor wants to contribute to the campaign, he or she needs to write a check that exceeds previous gifts made over the past two years in order to have the surplus dollars matched.
It's a hoop worth jumping through, in that it forces the center to expand its base of supporters, Smagala said.
To acquaint people with the center's mission and the people it serves — clients speak a combined 47 languages and hail from 50 countries — Smagala is offering tours of the center and is promoting #APCC3WORDS, in which people use Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to share three words that describe the center to them.
The idea came from adult students in the center's English as a Second Language class.
"They said, 'We can't speak a lot of words, but we can do three words for APCC,'" Smagala said.
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