For Donors

Would you like to help us help our students?  Find out how your donations help here.  First of all your donations are safe, secure, and tax-deductible.  We have 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity status with the IRS (see our letter from the IRS) under the About TEMA header page.  We use the accounting firm BDO for our bookkeeping and tax returns.  We will use the accounting firm Moss Adams to do our auditing.

Where does the money go?  Each student that becomes an Ambassador for TEMA can receive up to $1,500 from TEMA.  If an Ambassador volunteers 300 hours in the next 12 months, they receive a $1,000 scholarship for school.  Many of the volunteer hours are giving financial literacy presentations to schools or community organizations.

There is no better way to internalize and learn information than to teach it to others.  TEMA also matches money our Ambassadors save into a savings account at the bank.  We match dollar for dollar up to $500.  The dollar limit is $500 and the deadline for the match is when they graduate high school.  Whatever the student saves, they can spend.  The amount that is matched by TEMA is for school.  Just imagine the life lesson here.  Not only that, but all our Ambassadors pledge to save a percentage of all their income.  They have the choice 1% is a Bronze Medal Saver, 5% Silver Medal Saver, 10% Gold Medal Saver, and any percentage above that is a saver going the extra mile.

Why is matching a students’ funds for college important?  Below are excerpts from a study done at Washington University in St. Louis titled Relationship Between College Savings and Enrollment, Graduation and Student Loan Debt.  March 2013 (read entire study). “Overall, findings suggest that having even a small amount of savings designated for school can have a positive effect on low- and moderate- income (LMI) children’s graduation rates (Figure 1).  When contrasted with an LMI child with no savings account, an LMI child with school savings of $1 to $499—either in a physical savings account or mentally set aside—before college age is more than three times more likely to enroll in college and more than 4.5 times more likely to graduate from college.  In addition, an LMI child with school savings of $500 or more is about five times more likely to graduate from college than a child with no savings account.”“……provide students with financial incentives such as initial deposits, savings matches, and the opportunity for third-party deposits might achieve the greatest effect on college enrollment and graduation rates and reduce the amount of student loan debt.”

Keep in mind this is not a handout.  For our Ambassadors to receive $1,500 they have put in at least 300 hours of volunteer work.  That calculates out to just $5 an hour.  Your donations go a long way.  For more information please email info@TheExtraMileAcademy.org

Donate and Help Us Bring Financial Literacy to the Next Generation of Consumers

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