 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(June 2011) |
ScholarMatch is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that connects donors with prospective college students in order for them to help fund students' education. [1]
ScholarMatch was launched in April 2010 by writer and philanthropist Dave Eggers. 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in San Francisco that Eggers founded with teacher Nínive Clements Calegari, grants four scholarships per year to local students, [2] but each year, "the other 100 applicants would go wanting," Eggers said in a press release about ScholarMatch. [3] Thinking that many donors are more likely to fund the college aspirations of students if they get to know those students, and if there is a way to stay connected to those students once they’re enrolled, [4] Eggers founded ScholarMatch as a "new tool," for directing available money to students in need. [5] As of June 2011 [update] , 34 scholars registered with ScholarMatch had their scholarship goals met, either entirely through ScholarMatch or in partnership with other organizations. Such celebrities as novelist Ayelet Waldman [6] and actor John Krasinski [7] have donated to scholars, as have Microsoft and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. [8]
ScholarMatch operates a website and as a drop-in center at 849 Valencia Street. [8] The website is geared toward students, which the organization calls "scholars," as well as potential donors. Scholars submit profiles that include information such as high school extracurricular activities, grade-point average, and the college they plan to attend. [9] No profile is published without an edited personal statement and at least one letter of recommendation. Once a profile is published on the website, anyone registered with ScholarMatch can view it and donate. Donors are sent updates from the scholars they helped, and have the opportunity to meet them. [10]
At the drop-in center, scholars can use one of the computers to submit a profile, review their financial aid package, or ask questions about college. Just as 826 Valencia had to negotiate zoning codes [11] during its inception, ScholarMatch needed to be a retail space in order to operate out of their building; thus, college guide books, test-preparation manuals and other educational resources are for sale. Further, the staff at ScholarMatch, including director of operations Miel Alegre, host workshops that help students apply for college, understand their financial aid packages and complete ScholarMatch profiles. [12]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $69 billion in assets as of 2020. The primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S. Key individuals of the foundation include Warren Buffett, chief executive officer Mark Suzman, and Michael Larson.
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by Charles Koch and David Koch, two sons of Fred C. Koch who own the majority of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, paper, and chemical conglomerate which is the US's second-largest privately held company. Charles' and David's foundations have provided millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including libertarian and conservative think tanks. Areas of funding include think tanks, political advocacy, climate change denial, higher education scholarships, cancer research, arts, and science.
The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a membership association of institutions, including over 6,000 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.
McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle.
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are often structured so that the inflation-adjusted principal or "corpus" value is kept intact, while a portion of the fund can be spent each year, utilizing a prudent spending policy.
Matching funds are funds that are set to be paid in proportion to funds available from other sources. Matching fund payments usually arise in situations of charity or public good. The terms cost sharing, in-kind, and matching can be used interchangeably but refer to different types of donations.
826NYC is a nonprofit organization located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It provides free after-school tutoring, workshops, in-schools tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications. Drawing from a volunteer base of over 2,000, which includes many teachers, writers and journalism professionals, 826NYC unites students with tutors. It is a chapter of 826 National.
826 National is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6–18, improve their expository and creative writing skills. The organization's eight chapters include 826 Valencia in San Francisco, 826NYC in Brooklyn, 826LA in Los Angeles, 826CHI in Chicago, 826Michigan, 826 Boston in Boston, 826DC in Washington, DC, 826 New Orleans, and 826MSP.
826LA is a Los Angeles–based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6–18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Programs are structured around one-on-one attention. 826LA was founded in 2005 and is one of several chapters of 826 National. To serve students across Los Angeles' various regions, there are two locations: 826LA in Mar Vista and 826LA in Echo Park. The organization also operates Writers' Rooms on the campuses of Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles and Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, and offers a range of virtual writing and tutoring programs.
Nínive Clements Calegari is an educator in the United States. Following ten years of classroom experience in public schools, she became an author and founded a national literacy program, 826 National. She also founded The Teacher Salary Project. Currently she is the CEO of Enterprise for Youth, an organization that empowers young people to prepare for and discover career opportunities in the San Francisco area through a three-phase program model of job-readiness training, paid internships with college credit, and ongoing career development and networking support.
The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a South Carolina–based charitable organization serving K-12 aged students in Micronesia. Habele's initial geographic focus was the so-called "Outer Islands" of Yap State as well as lagoon and outer islands in neighboring Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. It now serves students of all backgrounds throughout the Freely Associated States.
Scholarship America is a Minnesota-based American philanthropic organization that assists communities, corporations, foundations and individuals with fundraising, managing and awarding scholarships to students. The organization designs, administers and manages corporate and foundation scholarship programs; it also operates Dollars for Scholars, a coalition of local scholarship organizations in communities across the United States.
826 Valencia is a non-profit organization in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, United States, dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. It was the basis for the 826 National organization, which has centers on the United States with the same goal.
The Koret Foundation is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. Its mission is to strengthen the Bay Area and support the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel through grantmaking to organizations involved with education, arts and culture, the Jewish community, and the Bay Area community. The foundation takes an approach of testing new ideas and bringing people and organizations together to help solve societal and systemic problems of common concern.
Jon Lloyd Stryker is an American architect, philanthropist, and billionaire heir to the Stryker Corporation medical technology company fortune.
Cradles to Crayons® (C2C®) is a non-profit organization that provides free clothes and other basic needs such as shoes, diapers, coats, and backpacks with school supplies to children living in homeless, poverty, and low-income situations for free. Cradles to Crayons began with its first Giving Factory® warehouse in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 2002. Cradles to Crayons expanded to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2006 and Chicago, Illinois, in 2016. In 2021, Cradles to Crayons launched its national online clothing donation platform Giving Factory Direct, serving children in NYC and San Francisco with direct donations from across the United States. Cradles to Crayons partners with corporations, community groups, service organizations, media outlets, sports teams, and other organizations in Chicagoland, Greater Philadelphia, Massachusetts, NYC, San Francisco, and across the U.S. Supporters donate clothing to clothes donation boxes. Then Cradles to Crayons volunteers sort and package the donations and provide them to children in need of clothing, shoes, diapers, and school supplies.
The Evans Scholars Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Glenview, Illinois that provides full tuition and housing college scholarships to golf caddies. Operated by the Western Golf Association, the Evans Scholars Foundation has helped more than 11,550 caddies graduate from college since its creation in 1930.
The Chicana/Latina Foundation (CLF) is a non-profit organization that promotes professional and leadership development of Latinas. The Foundation's mission is to empower Chicanas/Latinas through college scholarships, personal growth, educational, technology, cultural arts, and professional advancement.
The Farmlink Project is a United States-based non-profit organization that combats food waste by collecting excess produce from farms and other food donors across America and delivering it to organizations that serve food insecure communities. Since its founding in 2020, the organization has rescued over 130 million pounds of food, distributed to over 400 communities, and grown to a network of over 600 volunteers nationwide.