Fire Foundation of Denver

We continued our fundraising efforts in 2024 in order to make grants to schools for the 2024/2025 school year. During the course of 2024, the Board of the Fire Foundation made grant commitments to 14 schools within the Archdiocese of Denver totaling $482,182. This represents a 46% increase in support over last year and enabled 207 students to attend Catholic schools who would not have been able to and 624 students to benefit from special education support. Such grant commitments were partially paid in 2024 and the remainder of these obligations will be paid during the first half of 2025. Ongoing fundraising efforts in 2024 have provided the Board of the Fire Foundation with additional resources to make new grant commitments to qualifying schools for the 2025/2026 school year during the first quarter of 2025. Such funding will continue to allow Catholic schools practicing inclusive education of children with disabilities with much needed financial resources to expand and enhance their respective educational programs.

In 2024, FIRE commenced the Spark school initiative. Spark schools are those schools that are evaluating the feasibility of becoming an inclusive Catholic school within their parish and/or high school community. In 2024, four parish schools engaged in professional development alongside our Partner schools and received exclusive access to training through the Learning Research Network. Total expenditures for the four parish schools in 2024 was $8,000. Additionally, these Spark schools also received exclusive access to training through the Notre Dame Program of inclusive education and from St. Louis University, all of such services were contributed.

The Fire Foundation of Denver (FIRE) was able to continue providing grant funding of $20,000 in 2024 to the Office of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Denver in order to partially fund the salary for an important position relating to the mission of FIRE, the Director of Student Support Services. This position oversees and assists schools in educating children with significant special needs throughout the Archdiocese of Denver. FIRE also provided $56,500 in funding to teachers and other school administrators for professional development needs education, including the reimbursement of travel expenditures to approved conferences. Additionally, both the University of Notre Dame (through its program for inclusive education) and St. Louis University, provided in-kind/contributed services to FIRE during 2024 to further enhance the professional development of teachers in the Archdiocese of Denver.