Monthly
A recurring gift is the one we plan around. It pays the fixed things — rent, dinner, the program director’s salary — that have to be true every single week of the school year.
Give
Pay for the Tuesday.
Dinner on program nights, the van, the background checks, the staff who make the matches. Giving here buys the ordinary infrastructure that lets a volunteer sit down next to a kid.
Online giving opens in a new window on our giving platform. Set the link in the page editor.
What money does here
Unglamorous things, mostly
Mentoring is cheap and it is not free. A program night needs a room with the heat on, dinner for everybody who walks in, and a program director whose actual job is making and repairing matches.
Gifts here go to that ordinary machinery: the lease on Ashland Avenue, background checks and training, the van that gets the career crew to a job site, and the fee waivers and application costs that stop a senior in October.
We are a small organization and we will tell you plainly what a gift changed. If you want to know before you give, call and ask — the director will pick up.
Pick a lane
Three ways people give
Every button here goes to our giving platform. Choose the rhythm that fits your year, and change it whenever you like.
One-time
Give once, whenever it makes sense. End-of-year gifts land right as the college sprint is paying application fees and the winter heating bill arrives.
Sponsor a season
Underwrite a specific program for a school year — the homework lab, the summer crew, or mentor training. We will tell you how it went, in writing, at the end.
Ready now
Keep the lights on Tuesday night.
Our giving page takes cards, bank transfers and donor-advised fund gifts. It opens in a new window and takes about a minute.
Other ways
Not everything happens online
Mail a check
Made out to the organization and sent to the Ashland Avenue address at the bottom of this page. We will send a written acknowledgement back.
Employer matching
Plenty of Chicago employers match employee gifts. If yours does, send us the paperwork and we will fill in our half the same week.
Donor-advised funds and stock
We can receive gifts from a donor-advised fund or a brokerage transfer. Call the office and we will send the details your advisor needs.
In-kind and supplies
Laptops in working order, calculators, printer paper, and dinner for a program night. Ask before you buy so nothing duplicates what we already have.
The paperwork
What you should know before you give
The organization is a registered nonprofit; donations may be tax-deductible where allowed by law. Ask your tax advisor about your own situation, and ask us for anything you need in writing.
Every gift gets a written acknowledgement with the date and amount. If you want a conversation about how we spend money before you give one, call the office and the director will walk you through it.
Or give the other thing
Money helps. A Tuesday helps more.
If you have the evening as well as the dollars, the mentor form is the highest-value thing on this website.