Prepared for the PEACE Academy Board of Directors

A fundraising engine for PEACE Academy

The board has named fundraising its priority for the year ahead. PRISM builds AI-powered systems that turn that commitment into prospects found and applications in flight, with a light lift from staff: review and sign-off only.

PRISM AI Consultants · September 2026 · For board review ahead of the September meeting

A year of hard choices, and a real funding opening.

The new building is open. Grades 5 through 7 are arriving, with the school growing toward its full 465 seats. Growth of this size brings real costs that state formulas alone were never designed to cover. After a year of hard budget choices, the goal is capacity the school does not have to hire for. And with the State Charter Schools Commission looking closely at academic and financial results, a documented funding pipeline is part of a stronger financial story.

At the July board meeting, the board committed publicly to strengthening fundraising. Several funding windows that fit schools like PEACE are open this fall. The hard part is rarely finding them. It is having the capacity to track, write, and submit while also running a school.

Phase 2 openA new building serving the community, with event space designed to earn
Grades 5 to 7Roughly 110 more students in the year ahead
465 seatsThe enrollment the school is built to reach
No. 1

The money on the table, mapped

Funding windows that fit a school like PEACE, each checked against the funder's own page on September 13. Eligibility is confirmed with your team before any writing starts. Select any bar for the detail.

AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMar

Swipe the timeline sideways to see every month.

days until Teacher Grants for Innovation closes on October 15.

Windows and dates verified against the State Charter Schools Commission and each funder's own published page on September 13, 2026. Award decisions belong to the funders. We promise capacity and applications in flight, never outcomes.

No. 2

A week inside the engine

The engine is a working system PRISM builds and runs with your team, so the fundraising chair opens every board meeting with motion, never with a blank page.

No. 3

Ways to start

Each option starts as one defined, flat-fee engagement, then continues month to month only if the results earn it. Choose one, or combine them. The decision for the board is simple: approve one first engagement. The exact scope and flat fee come to the chair in writing, for the board's normal approval process.

A.

Fundraising and grant engine

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The lead option, anchored to the goal the board set in July. Paid from unrestricted funds, because federal rules generally do not allow federal grant dollars to pay for fundraising.

  • Goizueta introduction and literacy program concept ready ahead of the November review
  • Teacher Grants for Innovation submissions supported before October 15
  • A one-day Expansion subgrant eligibility check, and application support only if PEACE qualifies
  • A weekly funding radar and an applications-in-flight tracker the fundraising committee can read at a glance
B.

AI training for the board, leaders, and teachers

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Hands-on sessions built on the school's own work, following Georgia's published guidance on AI in K-12. Training for teachers and school leaders is the kind of professional development that may qualify for Title II-A; your finance team confirms. Board sessions are paid from unrestricted funds.

  • Board and leadership: faster board packets, reporting, and compliance calendars
  • Teachers: planning and family communication, with student records kept out of AI tools
C.

Enrollment and storytelling

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Filling the new grades starts with families seeing the new building and the people in it.

  • Short enrollment videos and reels cut from the school's own footage
  • A family-facing campaign for grades 5 through 7, and donor updates drawn from real results
  • No student faces are used without a signed family release
D.

Your AI partner, month to month

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After the first engagement proves itself, PRISM stays in the room as the school's AI partner. No long contract. The results carry the renewal.

  • A standing strategy session with school leadership
  • The funding radar and applications tracker kept current every week
  • New training and storytelling pieces as the year unfolds

How a yes happens

  1. 1A 30 minute call with the board chair and executive director, before Tuesday's board meeting.
  2. 2One first engagement chosen from A to D, with scope and flat fee sent to the chair in writing.
  3. 3A board vote at the next meeting, and the work can start right after.
Book the 30 minute call
No. 4

See the work

Four samples of what the engine produces, drafted from PEACE's own public numbers. Each is a starting point for your team to shape and approve, never sent without you.

1.

Board fundraising tracker

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What the fundraising committee would open at every board meeting. Owners shown are suggestions for the board to assign.

Fundraising committee · Applications in flightSample
OpportunityOwnerNext stepDue
SCSC Expansion subgrantFinance and academic leadsEligibility checkBefore Oct 1, noon ET
Teacher Grants for InnovationInterested teachersConfirm charter eligibility, then submitOct 15
Goizueta FoundationExecutive DirectorRequest an introductory callAhead of the November review
DonorsChooseInterested teachersPost first classroom projectsRolling
Title II-AFinanceConfirm FY27 professional development fitThis month
2.

Foundation introduction request

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A first draft of the introductory request the Goizueta Foundation asks for before any application.

PEACE AcademyDraft for the Executive Director's review
Dear Goizueta Foundation team,

PEACE Academy is a tuition-free, public K-8 charter school in Decatur, serving DeKalb County families. This year we opened our Phase 2 building and added grades 5 through 7.

Last year, 47% of our third graders read on grade level or above, just short of our 50% goal, and we reduced the share of students in the lowest reading band from 28% to 17%. We would welcome a brief introductory conversation about a focused literacy program that carries that growth into our new middle grades.

Would your team be open to a 20 minute call this fall?

With gratitude,
Ebony Keys
Executive Director, PEACE Academy
3.

Giving Tuesday family and community appeal

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A first draft for Giving Tuesday, December 1, 2026, ready for email and social posts.

This fall our doors opened wider. PEACE Academy welcomed grades 5 through 7 into a brand new building.

Our teachers are growing readers. Last year we moved students out of the lowest reading band, from 28% down to 17%. On Giving Tuesday, December 1, your gift helps us keep that momentum going for every grade. [School confirms the use of funds before sending.]

Give today at peaceacademycharter.org
4.

Enrollment reel for grades 5 through 7

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A 30 second vertical video for Instagram and Facebook, cut from the school's own building footage. No student faces are used without a signed family release.

Sample cut, made tonight from the building footage the school shared. Final version would add the school's music and approved photos.

Storyboard · 9:16 · 30 secondsDraft
  1. 0:00PEACE Academy. A new home. A new year.
    Title card in school colors
  2. 0:03Step inside.
    Walking up to the new building
  3. 0:10Built for what's next.
    The ceremony in hard hats
  4. 0:13Proudly PEACE.
    The lobby and the lights
  5. 0:19Loving. Self-Aware. Unified.
    School leadership at the podium
  6. 0:26Tuition-free, public, K-8. Enroll today.
    End card with the school logo

How we work

A defined first engagement

We start with one scoped, flat-fee project so the board sees results before considering anything longer, then month to month. PRISM has coached leaders at a regional youth mentoring nonprofit and at small businesses across the Lehigh Valley. PEACE would be our first charter school client, which is exactly why we start small and flat-fee.

Paid from the right dollars

Training for teachers and school leaders is the kind of professional development that may qualify for Title II-A. Board sessions are paid from unrestricted funds. PEACE's FY26 budget, presented at the May 2025 public hearing, carried $62,400 for staff development and $40,000 for recruitment, the natural home for enrollment storytelling. Fundraising support is paid from unrestricted funds, because federal rules (2 CFR 200.442) generally make fundraising costs unallowable without the federal agency's prior written approval. Your finance team confirms the fit for FY27.

Flat fee, always

Grant support is a flat professional fee, never a percentage of any award, the standard set by the Grant Professionals Association Code of Ethics.

Guardrails from day one

Our work follows Georgia's published guidance on AI in K-12. Student records stay out of AI tools entirely, and educators stay the decision-makers.

The window is open. Let's not watch it close.

Two windows are real this fall: Teacher Grants for Innovation by October 15, and a Goizueta introduction ahead of its November review. The Expansion subgrant is a long shot we will check in a day. PRISM would be honored to build this with PEACE.

Dr. Jeff Bullock, PharmD Founder and CEO, PRISM AI Consultants. Serves on the Board of Directors of the African American Business Leaders Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, volunteers on an Allentown School District committee, and teaches leaders and mission-driven organizations to put AI to work with results and guardrails.