The Catholic Education Foundation’s capital campaign has reached $96 million in commitments from donors, bringing the campaign close to its $100 million goal.
The public phase of “The Answer is Yes! For Everyone. Forever.” campaign was announced by the CEF during its 2025 Salute to Catholic School Alumni.
At this year’s event, CEF President Richard A. Lechleiter told the crowd, “I’m so pleased to tell you that we now stand at an incredible $96 million in campaign commitments. Thank you.
“From our small beginnings in 1999, when we awarded scholarships to 220 students, we’re now offering tuition assistance to an amazing 3,700 students with record funding of $8.6 million,” he said.
“Thanks be to God and donors, we’re going to hit that goal and it’s going to transform the foundation forever.”
— Richard A. Lechleiter, CEF president
The campaign contributions will fund direct tuition assistance and build the permanent endowment, Lechleter said in a February interview. At the time, he said the direct assistance commitments had reached $50 million, gifts to the permanent endowment had exceeded $20 million and some donors have made “deferred gifts” in their estate plans totalling $24 million.
Lechleiter said in the interview that the $100 million goal is “a reach” for the CEF. A consultant first suggested a $70 million goal, he noted.
“We tried to project our needs for the next 10 years. It kept coming back to $100 million,” he said. “The board courageously accepted that goal in 2020 — in the middle of Covid. Thanks be to God and donors, we’re going to hit that goal and it’s going to transform the foundation forever.
“We’ve been working really hard for the last year,” Lechleiter added, noting at the time the campaign had $5 million left to raise. “That will be a tough five, but we are working really hard. We would love to finish the campaign, to reach the goal by the end of the fiscal year. That would be a six-year campaign. We’ve had some gifts that came to us literally out of nowhere. It’s crazy how God works.”
During the March 10 Salute to Catholic School Alumni, Lechleiter asked the crowd to “join us in this game-changing endeavor.”
“Every donation is important and none is too small,” he said. “Once completed, this endeavor will be the largest of its kind in the 218-year history of the Archdiocese of Louisville.”
