This is not legal advice, and the Croft JP Parents with legal backgrounds are not providing legal representation. Nothing in this communication is confidential or subject to attorney-client privilege or work product protection. To the extent you need legal advice, you should retain your own counsel.
Dear Croft JP Community,
After a truly tumultuous week, we are writing with wonderful news! Through close coordination with our outside legal counsel and our amazing Fundraising Team, we’re delighted to share that we have everything in place to begin collecting donations to support the continuation of Croft JP through the end of the school year.
Specifically:
- We have established the Vehicle: We have formed a non-profit, Friends of JP Education. As a reminder, we needed to create a separate vehicle for our fundraising efforts so that the funds collected are parent controlled, not controlled by the LLC (i.e., the Board). Full details on the nonprofit will be provided in forthcoming updates and added to the Parent FAQ. All funds from JP families and donors will be deposited directly into a secure escrow account managed by Verdolino & Lowey, P.C., an independent accounting firm in Foxboro, MA. The nonprofit will oversee the payment of all payroll and operating expenses for Croft JP from this account directly to vendors, to help ensure that Croft JP operates through the end of the school year.
If for any reason Croft JP stops operating before June, any remaining funds will be returned to donors on a pro rata basis.
Note: as we’ve said since the beginning, everyone must view these donations as non-tax-deductible gifts. We ask that all donors be clear-eyed about this. We will continue to work with outside legal counsel in the coming days to determine ways to leverage these payments to benefit donors and are exploring multiple avenues.
- This Vehicle is the Best Path Forward: attached please find a letter from our outside legal counsel at Bowditch & Dewey, fully explaining our vehicle, how donations will be handled, and the protections offered. As always, there are risks, but we received independent legal advice to arrive at this vehicle and are confident in this approach.
- We Met Our Fundraising Goal Threshold: We committed not to collect funds unless we reached the full $1.18 million in pledges needed to fund Croft JP through June 12. Through the courageous strength and generosity of this community, we have surpassed that necessary threshold.
- Pledges Will Now Be Collected: Josh, Giselle, and the Fundraising Team will begin contacting individuals to convert pledges to donations. We ask that everyone who pledged make preparations to transfer funds promptly via wire, ACH, or check. Specifics will be provided to individuals who pledged donations by the Fundraising Team to ensure transactions are made safely and securely. We will also provide a secure drop box at Croft tomorrow and Friday to accept checks.
We want to be transparent: our team has limited capacity to respond individually at this time as we focus on executing this effort. We will continue to share updates and address frequently asked questions as quickly as possible. We are providing details on next steps to those who have made pledges.The fundraising team will be following. We appreciate your understanding, and please know that we remain committed to keeping everyone informed.
Given the incredible progress to date, we are confident that we can collect the necessary funds with sufficient speed and efficiency to provide our community as much certainty as possible that Croft JP will be open not just in the coming weeks, but through the remainder of the school year. We will update everyone once we have collected the first tranche of new payroll funds, in addition to regular progress updates.
Thank you to the incredible efforts of this entire community.
Erik and Merry (on behalf of the PAC)