The finish line is in sight for the Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) and its $11.1 million Campaign for the Future of Great Lakes Education. An anonymous foundation has come forward with a $250,000 matching challenge grant, and will match any donations made to the campaign between now and June 30. With “a hair under $500,000 left to raise” toward the final fundraising goal, ISEA Executive Director Fred Sitkins says the matching grant has the potential to bring the years-long effort to its culmination.

ISEA went public with the Campaign for the Future of Great Lakes Education last summer, but the eight-figure fundraiser actually launched back in 2021. Throughout its four-year quiet phase, the campaign raised the funds necessary for ISEA to purchase a property to the south of its existing Suttons Bay headquarters, acquire a new schooner, and take over stewardship of the nearby Leo Creek Preserve. Last year’s public launch coincided with the announcement that ISEA would be purchasing another neighboring property, the Millside building in Suttons Bay, and converting it into a new educational facility.

Renovations at Millside, which will be renamed “the Inland Seas Education Center,” are slated to begin sometime this summer.

“Our architect will have the bid package ready soon, and bids are due on May 28,” Sitkins tells The Ticker. “I think we'll be starting construction either right at the end of June or right after the Fourth of July.”

As that date approaches, Sitkins says the unexpected $250,000 matching challenge grant is doing a lot to set his mind at ease.

“The initial feeling was, frankly, a ton of relief,” Sitkins says of the grant. “The hardest lift with any campaign like this is to raise the last million dollars, and that process has certainly been a struggle – a wonderful struggle, but a struggle nonetheless. To have this incentive come through right in that most challenging period, it just couldn't have been better timed.”

Sitkins credits the camaraderie and collaboration of the local nonprofit scene for making this particular grant a reality.

“This is a new charitable foundation for Inland Seas; we had never worked with them before,” he explains. “The way this grant came about was through some introductions that were made by some of our partners. There was another successful nonprofit in our region that had a relationship with this foundation. They were really trying to help me close out this campaign, and made an introduction, and it turned into an opportunity for us. I think, sometimes, the sense is that local nonprofits are all in competition with each other, because we’re all after the same kind of resources. But this is an example of nonprofits working together to help make this region better.”

ISEA will formally share the grant news with donors via its annual report, which is going out this week. That announcement, paired with “a flood of social media” in the coming days, will represent one last fundraising blitz for the campaign, Sitkins says.

As for when the new educational space will actually open, ISEA will very likely miss its goal of having the facility up in running in time for next year’s spring programming season.

“So far, in our communications with the firms that are going to be bidding, there seems to be general consensus that this will be a 14-16-month build,” Sitkins says. “So, we're going to be talking about completion in the fall of ’27.”

Sitkins previously told the Leelanau Ticker the spring schoolship season is the busiest time of the year for ISEA, and therefore the time when “the need for this facility is the greatest.”

“In the spring here, we're juggling six classrooms at a time,” Sitkins said last summer. “And all those students need to put their stuff somewhere. They all need a place to eat lunch. And we don't have space for that. Kids will eat out in the pavilion on our south property, but in May, it’s not always pleasant to be outside. The upstairs space at the Millside building will serve all those purposes, as well as being able to host our training events, conferences, donor recognition events, and those types of large group activities.”

ISEA had initially hoped to send the project out to bid sooner, but was delayed by a permitting issue with the Suttons Bay Planning Commission. That issue, which concerned setback requirements for the new facility, has since been resolved, but will still have an effect on the project.

“The delays definitely moved everything back,” Sitkins says. “We were really hoping to start the spring season in 2027 with the new facility completed, but the wait is going to make that impossible. So, we’re going to miss one more schoolship season after this year, but we will definitely be ready to go for 2028.”

Pictured: A rendering of the new Inland Seas Education Center.