Nonprofit has $1.5 million in great news but another $1.5 million in devastating news

Though it seems like a pandemic may be a challenging time to do fundraising, the Phillips Fundamental Learning Center has landed another $1.5 million in its capital campaign for a new east-side campus. Still, it’s not all good news, and the pandemic is to blame.

First, the happy news:

The I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation, a Minnesota-based foundation that supports education in disadvantaged communities, donated $1.5 million that completes the $20 million capital campaign for the Fundamental Learning Center’s new campus at the northeast corner of 143rd and Central with a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design.

The center teaches children with dyslexia and their educators. In an e-mailed statement, the foundation called the center “a source of hope and help for so many young people both in the local Wichita community and, through its teacher training program, across the nation.”

Now, the unhappy news:

Rising construction costs and supply-chain issues are forcing the center to raise an unexpected $1.5 million more to cover overages.

Co-founder and executive director Jeanine Phillips was stunned and demoralized to hear the news.

“I’ll tell you, this COVID thing, this was the toughest year of my life,” she said.

“I was just devastated when we sat down and heard how much our original materials bids had gone up,” Phillips said. “I felt like I had used up every ounce of energy.”

She said her fundraising team has been amazing, and they’re starting over with a second $4 million capital campaign.

That includes $1.5 million for construction costs; $1 million in scholarships for teachers and students; $500,000 for operations; and $1 million for an enhanced outdoor play and learning area.

“We felt like we needed something exciting . . . to encourage new donors,” Phillips said of the outdoor area.

She said she’s not sure when construction will begin on the new campus.

“We decided to bite the bullet and order steel.”

It’s taking so long for the 25 tons necessary for the building, it won’t be here until sometime next summer.

Foundation work will start ahead of that, so probably around May.

“So it’s still a bunch of ifs,” Phillips said.

Still, she said she doesn’t want to diminish the impact of the O’Shaughnessy Foundation grant.

“This gift does not build our building, but it certainly gets us ever closer to starting that building construction.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 2:45 PM.