How they’re doing it
Concordia Avondale Campus, a $12.5 million project (construction, program development and operations)
Income
• $4 million federal grant
• $2 million state grant
• $3 million city of Chicago grant
Total: $9 million
$7.5 million for building construction (out of $8.2 million construction cost).
$1.5 million for program development (research, program start-up, pilot projects, marketing, outreach, materials, job employment, etc.).
Other income
• Parishioners’ donations $300,000
• Private foundations $200,000
• Individual donors and businesses $70,000
Total: $570,000
Income grand total: $9,570,000 for project
$3 million more needed.
• $2.3 million for program development (equipment, furnishings, computers, salaries until tuition comes in, program support, scholarship program, other start-up costs).
• $700,000 to pay back loan.
Source: Concordia Avondale Campus
A church on Chicago’s North Side perhaps should be called “The little church that could.”
Concordia
Lutheran Church has a membership of fewer than 200, but it has
transformed a Roman Catholic school and rectory into a $12.5 million
campus that will serve all ages when its community and learning center
opens this fall.
The congregation has offered preschool, after-school and summer camp programs for 25 years, currently serving 88 children, ages
3 to 12.
When
it opens Concordia Avondale Campus (one mile away) it will serve an
additional 211 children, including infants and toddlers, through its
child-care center. It will offer programs and educational and
recreational activities for teens, parents and the elderly.
Plans
for the Avondale site began about 10 years ago after Nicholas Zook,
pastor, realized the congregation’s child-care center had as many
children on the waiting list as it had enrolled in the program. “I
asked members, ‘Why is the vision of the church limited to the
perimeters of the building? Why do the walls define how far we could
go?’ ” he recalled.
So Zook asked his ward’s alderman if
property was available for the congregation to acquire. He learned the
former St. Veronica Roman Catholic School and rectory were available.
With help from elected officials, private donations, and city, state
and federal grants, Concordia purchased the century-old
buildings—considered by many as architectural treasures—in 2001.
Renovation
and construction work began last year. It includes restoring some of
the building’s original architectural features—such as staircases,
facade and stained-glass windows.
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© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
