The Education Matters Project

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We strive to educate people on the benefits of higher education and fund low-income high potential students who have a funding gap. The recipient must articulate their needs and why education matters to them.

Standings & Awards

32 out of 422 in North America
60 out of 778 in Education
30 out of 173 in Scale
94 out of 992 in Charitable
253 out of 4003 Overall

2

VOTES

Jeremy C Wilson, Marquis Parker, Ashish Aggarwal, Bao Ngyuen

Education Matters:will Collect stories, Crowdfund college, and Connect students to mentors

If you could change someone’s life by giving him $25 would you do it? What if your $25 connected you to the student and you could mentor them as they attend college? And what if someone else did all the work to distribute the funds? That’s opportunity you have with the Education Matters Project.

Challenge. In 2011 we began to notice a troubling trend: a pattern of high-potential less fortunate students turning down college due to the skyrocketing cost of higher education. Some were opting for lower tier institutions, while others forewent college entirely, all due to the financial burden. At a time when a majority of career options depend on higher education, EMP believes that there's never been a more pivotal time to support these low-income students.

Vision. Our vision is to create an environment where even the most disadvantaged communities hold the power to attend college. While most educational nonprofits focus on pre-college preparation, our proposition is to change the education landscape through crowdsourcing of funds and advice. Aware of the pioneering work of Kiva and GiveForward, we will leverage the power of the Internet to create a nationwide network of small-time donors and connect them to individual students who need funding to pursue their educational dreams. Remember 100 donors contributing $25 is just as valuable as one donor contributing $2,500.

Approach. EMP’s strategic approach: 1) create partnerships with institutions that provide us with compelling students, 2) develop a community of potential donors who are passionate about education and 3) empower donors to fund and mentor students on our platform. The centerpiece of our success is our action-oriented technology platform. Our storytelling and fundraising tools, as well as constituency-building are built with the Blue State Digital Tools-the same tools leveraged in the It Gets Better Project & BarackObama.com campaign.

Why? Born in Youngstown OH where the poverty rate was 50% and most people did not finish high school, I know personally how important college is. Our platform will empower students just like me to find funding even in the most disadvantaged circumstances. And it will show higher education remains the best path to opportunity in low-income communities. Please help us provide students with that opportunity.

Support Your Idea Optional (5 - 7 minutes for three uploads)

Supporting Document:

About Us.pdf

Articles.pdf

INFOGRAPHIC.pdf

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.pdf

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

We make it possible for private individuals to find, connect with and directly fund individual students applying to college with a funding gap. To accomplish this we allow students to share their story of why education matters to them and their needs with donors we have attracted to our platform. Our website allows donors to hear stories of student needs and decide which candidate they want to support. This connection of donors and students is not currently being done today in any meaningful way

2. Who gains the most?

We help college applicants from lower income households who are confronted with having to make a compromising college choice because of insufficient financial resources. We fill the funding gap for those students with multiple donations that enable the student to have more school choices. This process (connecting donors and Students) also helps relieves stress, inadequacies and guilt by friends and family members of the student in need.

3. Who pays?

Unlike other fund raising platforms, we will not charge a fixed commission on funds raised to cover operating expenses. Instead, other donors will be solicited separately to cover operating expenses. We will also expect our alumni to “pay it forward” upon graduation and reinvest in future students in need. We have received a start-up grant of $25,000 from the McCormick Foundation to cover expenses related to incorporation, story collection and the construction or our Internet site.

4. What is your success?

We will measure success with several metrics: 1) dollars raised, 2) students needs met, 3) number of donors, 4) average dollars donated per student, 5) number of student stories funded and 6) number of site visitors. We think crowd funding (“connect people through donations”) is the most powerful way to make these changes and empower those finding themselves in this situation.

5. How will you do it?

To achieve success we must do two things well: 1) the students must create compelling stories and 2) we must attract enough viewer/donors. This system will enable and empower others who are passionate about the theme “education matters” to have an impact no matter the size of their donation. This empowers both the donor and the recipient. Our story project at www.educationmattersrproject.org/stories will help us get attention before launching our crowdfunding platform.