Recently, our public schools in California have been affected by large budget cuts, as the state reacts to the economic downturn. As noted in EdSource’s article about the California K-12 Education System, “California’s state government largely controls the system by which public K–12 education receives funding, which means that state leaders exercise substantial control over what happens in schools.” What this means is that due to the recession and resulting state budget crisis, when the state has no money to spend, they must cut costs everywhere, and our public schools and their students suffer as a result. This problem is not unique to California schools, as schools all over the nation are facing similar problems.

Schools have their own assortment of operating expenditures. However, as seen in this EdSource analysis, student programs are only barely accounted for, and students must raise their own funds for activities such as homecoming, prom, and graduation. Additionally, programs such as music and arts are being neglected, simply because of lack of funding. As seen in this article on The Notebook, “most schools [in Philadelphia's public school system] cannot afford both a music and an art teacher”.  With their budget cuts, schools are forced to choose subjects such as math and science over performing arts.  Schools are still being held accountable for high student progress despite their lack of funding for teachers and the best learning environment.

Are these programs important to students? On a recent visit to a local high school, we learned that students are very aware and affected by this problem. The school newspaper has a front-page article about students who are unhappy over the possible cuts to their music programs because of lack of funding. Sitting in on a Student Council meeting, we hear student council representatives brainstorming methods to raise money for their class activities such as prom. A big take-away from their meeting, we see that despite all the funding problems, the students are passionate about their class activities and very optimistic about exploring other methods of fundraising. The students organize activities such as car washes, movie nights, and local restaurant-sponsored nights to generate the money they need for their student activities.

In an effort to help schools and other community groups in their fundraising efforts, YOUffiliate, working together with local schools and students, has developed a fundraising platform to help student groups earn money. We see first-hand that most of the current fundraising events do not take advantage of the Internet! A fact is that a majority of these students are on social media sites, surfing the Internet daily, and making purchases ONLINE! A study by research firm Harris Interactive has shown that 34% of young consumers are getting ideas for what to buy from social media sites.  In addition, people are buying online in growing numbers. Just in the first quarter of 2010, e-commerce sales grew 14.3%, according to an Internet Retailer study. By leveraging our relationships with big advertisers, school groups and community organizations promote their own page of online deals and products from large advertisers including Walmart, Orbitz, and Apple. They can then promote their own page of exclusive offers to their friends, family, parents, and anyone else in their network. Any purchase made from these advertisers will result in a portion of the sale given to the school organization.

This program is perfect for any group looking for ways to expand their fundraising efforts. For example, any school groups (senior class, junior class, etc. ) sports clubs, teams (baseball team, basketball team), music groups (bands and orchestras), religious groups (church or temple fundraising), etc. are perfect candidates for this type of fundraising program. We are warmly inviting any school groups or community organizations to use our FREE fundraising platform (yes – NO cost!). For more information, demos, or to sign up, please contact us at http://www.youffiliate.com/contact_us. We hope to help make a difference in your fundraising, and keep alive the programs that our important to our community, schools, faculty, parents, and students.