Lucile Souders Elementary School of Math and Science

The focus on giving was part of a Dime Time Coin Drive, a fundraising event that was held in all schools in the attendance area of E.E. Smith High School and spearheaded by the E.E. Smith Academic Excellence Giving Circle at the Cumberland Community Foundation.

As a way to grow giving among youth, a goal of the Community Foundation and NCGives, and as a way to make a difference in the schools, the giving circle challenged the schools, offering to match each dime donated with a dollar, up to $2,000.

NCGives, which promotes giving among communities of color, women and young people, provided seed funding to create the giving circle at the community foundation.

At Lucile Souders, an elementary school where 89 percent of the students are African American and 77 percent receive free or reduced lunch, Holland kicked off Dime Time with a letter to parents.

Kids were encouraged to ask their parents for dimes and to ask their parents to ask other family members and people at church and at work. It was all about "expanding the circle," Holland says.

Each classroom was given an initial goal of collecting 100 dimes. Classrooms that met their goal would be treated to a popsicle social, and grade levels that met their collective goals would be treated to a skating party at a local roller-skating rink.

All those goals were met in the first two days. So the goal for the entire school was raised to 15,000 dimes from 10,000. In addition to the daily broadcasts, a megaboard was placed in the cafeteria that included daily updates on the total raised by each class. Teachers also were encouraged to give.

When the final count was in, the kids had collected 19,943 dimes, or $1,994.30, a total that was matched with $2,000 from the giving circle.

Students at the four schools that participated in the challenge, including Lucile Souders, collected 28,393 dimes, or $2,839.30 and the giving circle matched those with four grants totaling $7,022.

Mary Holmes, executive director of the Cumberland Community Foundation, says Dime Time was an "effective way to engage youth in giving for their schools in a short, low-cost/high-impact program. The idea, she says, was to "teach the kids how to give back and show them that collective giving can really make a difference."  

The above story is excerpted from the Philanthropy Journal’s Giving and Community page, sponsored by NCGives. Read the full article here.