Sponsorships

Because St. Isidore’s does not charge tuition or fees (for room, board, books, etc.), we do not offer (or seek donations for) the scholarships typically offered to students at modern colleges and universities. Instead, in a manner more in keeping with the traditions of medieval universities, we ask potential donors to consider sponsoring one or more of our students. We want our students to be grateful for—but not feel indebted to—their sponsors, so sponsorships do not create direct ties between individual sponsors and students (as endowed chairs do). Instead, we ask every student to pray daily for his or her sponsor(s), publicly display the names of all of our sponsors for a given academic year to encourage students to pray for sponsors by name, and offer at least one Mass per year for each sponsor.

To be considered a sponsor, a donor must enroll (annually) as a sponsor using our (annual) sponsorship form and pledge to donate $10,000 in a given academic year. Those wishing to make larger donations on behalf of students may make multi-year sponsorships or become a Perpetual Sponsor by making an endowed sponsorship with a gift of at least $200,000.

Because we do not record direct ties between individual sponsors and students, relatives of current or future students (parents, grandparents, etc.) wishing to sponsor particular students can certainly think of their generic sponsorship as a sponsorship of their relative (child, grandchild, etc.), but in point of fact there will be no direct connection between the money donated by any particular sponsor and the financial provision of any particular student. Such sponsorships should certainly not be seen as tuition payments (and consequently such sponsorships remain tax-deductible donations), and such sponsorships have no bearing whatsoever upon the admission or continued enrollment of any particular student.