|
Log On, Change A Life
With just a few clicks, you can log on and change a life for a Seattle student.
Starting Tuesday, January 18th, 2005 an exciting new web-based donor opportunity will be available for those who care about the success of our students in Seattle Public Schools. www.schoolkidscomefirst.com is modeled after a very successful site, which has raised well over two million dollars for New York Public Schools in just three years.
The goal for www.schoolkidscomefirst.com is to give donors, parents, alumni, and local businesses a quick and easy way to directly fund projects and needs at our schools. The web site will be focused first around needs at our underserved schools in the Seattle Public Schools to help raise money for experiences and enhancements for students. The dollars raised through the site are not for basic supplies, but rather for things our schools are currently doing – or want to do – that help supplement students’ work in the classroom.
Co-Founded by School supporters Dick Lee & Rich Carr, SchoolKidsComeFirst was incorporated under the provisions of the non-profit incorporation statutes in Washington. Except in extraordinary situations, all donations to SchoolKidsComeFirst will be tax-exempt EXCEPT in the event that (1) registration under 501(c)(3) is rejected or (2) retroactive status of donations from the date of incorporation is rejected. SchoolKidsComeFirst does not anticipate such a result.
Providing students and teachers additional support for the classroom makes everyone a winner. The schoolkidscomefirst.com website provides instant information about a specific project at a specific school. The site will put the power of helping underserved schools right on your desktop, whenever and wherever you get the inspiration to help.
Check out www.schoolkidscomefirst.com. Log on, change a life!
New Web site helps find donors for school supplies
One teacher at a South Seattle elementary school wants to buy sheet music for band students.
Another teaches special education students who struggle academically but shine musically, and wants a digital video camera to help them showcase their talents.
Fulfilling such wishes is the mission of www.SchoolKidsComeFirst.com, a new non-profit Web site being officially launched today.
The site allows donors to look through a list of individual classroom projects at Seattle public schools and choose which one to help. There are 21 projects listed so far, ranging from a simple request for a $50 globe to a proposal to send students on an overnight trip to an outdoor learning center on Bainbridge Island, at a cost of $437.
The site's inception came after Dick Lee, a Ballard High School alumnus with a background in school fund raising, heard a radio story about a similar project in New York.
Started by a high school teacher in the Bronx five years ago, www.DonorsChoose.org has raised close to $2.7 million and funded 5,400 projects through donations from across the country. The site has expanded its efforts to schools in Chicago, North Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lee loved the idea. Soon after that, a friend introduced him to Rich Carr, who owns a local marketing company and is married to a former public school teacher.
Carr remembered his wife's days of digging into her own pocket to enhance her students' education. He'd also heard the radio story about the New York initiative, and was as enthusiastic as Lee.
"We know there's a need," Carr said. "What we found is that the average person does not know that they can give directly to the schools or to a specific project. So we thought we'd put together something that made giving to a specific classroom project very easy to do."
The pair combined their areas of expertise.
Carr tapped employees of his agency to help build and design the site, which was vetted through the district to ensure it met security and content criteria. Lee contacted schools to get the word out, running the site from a donated cubicle space in the school district headquarters. It wasn't long before the proposals started coming in.
While any Seattle school can post projects on the site, the intent is to focus on the 40 or so city schools where at least half the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals -- at one, the rate is 96 percent.
Those schools often have less ability to raise funds for extras, Lee points out, and may not even have an active parent-teachers association.
The site allows potential donors to search for projects at a particular school or ones focused on a specific subject area -- for example, arts or science. The projects are intended to stay mainly in the $100 to $500 range, Lee said, and are not for textbooks or other basic classroom supplies.
Donations are tax-deductible and can be made by credit card or check sent by mail. Shipping, processing and the cost of verifying and documenting projects are covered by a 15 percent fee included in each project total.
When projects are fully funded, Lee said, donors will receive a photo showing what they paid for and acknowledgment from the school.
"Sometimes when you write a check you know it's doing something good, but you can't really know where it's going or what it's doing," he said. "This way, you'll see exactly where it's going."
Cathy Thompson, principal of Rainier View Elementary in the city's South End, welcomes the initiative as a way to pay for items her budget can't cover. The school's wish list includes a set of books to teach students about the civil rights movement, as well as money for uniforms and tennis shoes.
"It will make a huge difference -- even a $15 pair of tennis shoes," Thompson said. "That kid feels comfortable going to P.E., doesn't feel like they'll be ridiculed if they have boots instead of tennis shoes. Fifteen dollars can make a big difference to a child."
Future plans for the site include collecting items from local businesses for an online auction. More than $300 has been raised so far.
"There are a lot of people who want to help," he said. "There's nothing like seeing a happy kid with a book."
For more information, please contact Dick Lee at (206) 391-5555.
|
