When Helen Ward, executive director of the Aspen Education Foundation, opened an envelope in mid-December, she expected to find a small donation from a couple that had just left her office.
The man and woman, who do not have school-age children, had heard about the local school district’s budget woes from a neighborhood kid and decided to learn more; after doing so, they left the envelope.
“It was a check for $30,000. We just couldn’t believe it,” Ward said this week. “And what a great message — to realize the need without even having kids in the schools and to take action.
AEF, which is the Aspen School District’s nonprofit fundraising arm, finds itself in a similar place as many local nonprofits as New Year’s Day rolls around: People are giving more than they were deep in the recession, but the demand for help is greater than before.
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