The Olentangy Education Foundation was founded in 1990 as the Pride Foundation, a non profit organization with the primary purpose of enhancing academic programs of the Olentangy Local School District. In 2004, the Board of Directors changed the organization’s name to Olentangy Education Foundation (OEF) to better reflect this mission. All tax deductible contributions are used by the Olentangy Education Foundation to fund annual teacher education grants, college scholarships and other awards for education programs within the school district. The Foundation has also created an Endowment Fund for future support of Olentangy Schools.
The primary fundraiser for OEF is the annual golf outing. With tremendous corporate and community support, this event has successfully raised over $280,000 for the Foundation in the past six years. Since the 2000-01 school year, the Foundation has funded in excess of $156,000 in innovative, creative teacher education grants. These grants are initiated by district staff members and serve grades K-12. In addition, the Foundation has funded $84,000 in college scholarships to deserving graduates.
A secondary fund raiser developed by the Foundation is the Staff Commendation Program. In this program, parents honor staff members by making a contribution to the Foundation on their behalf. In the inaugural year of this program, over $1,000 was generated for the Foundation’s general fund. This past year, an additional $9,000 was raised through this avenue.
In 2007 the Foundation created the Olentangy Alumni Association. The Alumni Association will be a useful vehicle for communication with alumni and will serve to further the mission of enhancing academic programs within the district.