Press Release: Nation’s Financial Crisis Spurs iLoveSchools.com’s New Website Launch

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Valarie | Comments (0)

Nonprofit organization takes the friction out of donating to education in time of need
Just as children head back to school, iLoveSchools.com, a national nonprofit corporation linking teachers and schools with donors of new, used and in-kind resources, today announced the launch of its new website—www.iLoveSchools.com.

During back-to-school season all eyes are on education, mounting budget cuts and the disparity between classroom resources. iLoveSchools.com, with its new website, wants to spotlight and garner support from donors for classroom needs year-round.

Now in its seventh year, iLoveSchools.com in response to user feedback and the struggling economy, has expanded its business model by launching a brand new website. The new iLoveSchools.com has gone from serving only teachers to now serving all teachers, schools and districts, both public and private, in the U.S. and its territories; regardless of geographic location and cultural or socioeconomic background.

Hall states, “While our objective is to help classrooms in need, our long-term goal is to improve student retention and critical thinking skills by making a quality education available to all children through donated supplies and services. We are creating a community-based support system that channels materials to the classrooms year-round, as well as matching schools with local volunteers.”

Teachers, schools and districts can visit www.iLoveSchools.com and create WishLists by shopping in the website’s featured online store and choosing from over one hundred thousand products, or simply describing the items and services they need in a special request. Donors either fund all or some of the WishList or post a DonorOffer for the resources and services they want to donate. The donor ultimately decides who receives their donation based on their selected criteria and how much of their dollar—if any—goes to iLoveSchools.com’s administrative costs.

Additionally, individuals, businesses, and parent organizations such as a PTA or PTO can support educators and students by creating a ClassroomFriend Group, a unique web page that highlights particular teachers, schools or districts on iLoveSchools.com. ClassroomFriend Group pages, which are personalized with a unique story and photo, connect friends and customers with a social cause and encourage the community to financially invest in America’s classrooms.

Category: In the Media
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PB Web Guru Gives Schools a Boost

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Jerry | Comments (0)

Jerry Hall created iLoveSchools.com so that donors and volunteers could easily be matched with the needs of teachers and schools.

Beach and Bay Press
by Adriane Tillman

September 24, 2009

Pacific Beach resident Jerry Hall launched iLoveSchools.com nationwide in 2003 to connect teachers and schools with donors and volunteers through a simple, online interface that matches teachers’ wishes with donors’ capabilities.

The Web site allows, say, a Pacific Beach teacher to post a wish list for classroom supplies for donors to scan and, hopefully, choose to fund. Teachers can also ask for volunteer help through the Web site.

On the giving side, donors can find a specific school and scan the teacher’s list of needs to see if they can provide the items. Or, a donor can post on the donation board whatever he has to offer: toner for the printer, literature books, computers.

Business and volunteers can also post their services online for school districts to take advantage of. For example, a healing arts school or restaurant can post its willingness to host a field trip for school children.

Hall said the site gives teachers an opportunity to articulate their needs without begging parents for supplies, fundraising on their own or even pulling money out of their own pockets.

“I definitely want to encourage far more participation between parents and schools, but when a parent comes to the schools, the teacher shouldn’t have her hand out and say, ‘I need $20,’” Hall said. “To me, it’s separating the two.”

Hall ran his own Web site design business, eWebLab, for nine years but said he gradually grew more interested in supporting education than churning a profit. Hall soon realized that iLoveSchools.com could not support itself, however, so he launched an online, for-profit business to sell school supplies at SchoolSupplyDrive.com. Hall uses his for-profit company to help his non-profit organization. Hall said he donates 20 percent of the gross profit from the school supply company to iLoveSchools.com.

Donors at iLoveSchools.com mostly give through SchoolSupplyDrive.com since the company delivers for free, plus proceeds from that Web site head back to the schools, Hall said.

Hall said his eventual goal is to make iLoveSchools.com self-sustaining from the profits from SchoolSupplyDrive.com so it doesn’t have to rely on the generosity of donors to support schools.

Hall runs both businesses out of his home in Pacific Beach, although he plans to move into an office in Old Town.

Category: In the Media
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Obsolescence and Inequality in Schools – an opinion piece from Education Week

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Valarie | Comments (0)

Author, Robert Fried, the executive director of the Upper Valley Educators Institute, in Lebanon, N.H., wrote a compelling and thought-provoking piece in a recent issue of Education Week. In his article he cites and discusses two competing diagnoses of school inadequacy—inequality of resources and achievement, or educational obsolescence.

“All public school systems, but especially those serving students in low-income communities, suffer both inequality and obsolescence: a performance gap between high-achieving students and low achievers (often translated as low-income or minority students vs. higher-income or white students), and an outdated, content-heavy curriculum that denies students from even our most highly rated schools an opportunity to gain what Harvard University’s Tony Wagner calls “survival skills” for 21st-century teenagers (questioning, networking, agility, entrepreneurial skills, and the like).

Both dilemmas are real, pervasive, mired in old patterns, and sadly resistant to change. Trying to solve one without addressing the other will lead to failure on both fronts, further damaging prospects for the very children who most need access to critical skills and knowledge.”

Read the whole article at Education Week.

Category: Poverty and Education Inequities
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