A: Our mission is very simple: We provide free school supplies to teachers of students in need. We determine need based on a school's participation in the National School Lunch Program. To be eligible to receive our services, 70 percent or more of a school's total enrollment must participate in the school lunch program. At last count, there were 79 schools in our market area that meet this criterion. This fall we will serve 50 of those schools.
We launched a pilot program comprised of eight schools in January 2009. We celebrated our grand opening Sept. 24, 2009. We’ve been expanding our program every year since. Next year we will celebrate our fifth anniversary.
Q: It’s a pretty cool idea. Where did it come from? Is it modeled on a group elsewhere?
A: The idea of providing school supplies to teachers of students in need is approximately 20 years old. The first center that I'm aware of started in Portland, Maine, in 1994. In 1995, what is now known as the Kids In Need Foundation was established here in Dayton as the SHOPA Foundation for Educational Excellence by the School, Home, & Office Products Association, as a means of giving back to a community that was integral to the school supplies and office products industry. We modeled ourselves after Crayons to Computers in Cincinnati, which was founded in 1998.
Q: How do you get the work done? Do you have a large staff?
A: We have a small, efficient staff composed of five individuals, including a fund development manager, a program manager, an operations manager, and me. We also have a marketing intern from the University of Dayton and a wonderful group of core volunteers. I would also like to mention that our volunteer board of directors, composed of 22 individuals, is second to none!
Q: What sorts of comments or feedback do you get from teachers, students and parents?
A: We receive all sorts of wonderful feedback from the teachers we serve and from the students they teach. Every time a teacher shops at our free store, we ask them to complete a simple "homework" assignment: To acknowledge the donors who provide the funding or supplies necessary to run our business. There are too many great examples to share, but I will mention one story that has stuck with me for a long time. Shortly after we opened, a teacher from a high-needs school told us that she was literally down to her last pencil. In front of her stood two students needing the pencil, so she faced this dilemma: She thought, if I break this pencil in half to help these students, which one gets the half with the eraser?
Q: Where does most of your funding come from?
A: Our funding comes primarily from five sources: Private foundations, corporate foundations, corporations, individuals and the Miami Valley Combined Federal Campaign.
Q: What are the biggest challenges to your work?
A: I would say our biggest challenges are continuing to expand our program year over year by adding more schools to our service roster, but not growing too quickly so as to run out of product to offer our teachers. It's a fine line and not an exact science, so we take a cautious approach to growth. The other challenge is growing our fundraising campaign to mirror our program expansion.
Q: What are the biggest rewards?
A: Certainly it's assisting local teachers obtain the school supplies necessary for their classrooms. That's number one. Beyond that, it has been working with a group of local business professionals to address an unmet need in our community and then building an organization from the ground up, through collaborative partnerships, to deal with the problem. That has been a very rewarding experience indeed.
Q: What is the region you serve? Are you considering expanding it?
A: Currently we are serving public, parochial and charter schools in Montgomery County; however we have started conversations about expanding our program into Clark County. We have mapped out a seven-county market area that comprises the following counties: Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Warren.
Q: What does the future look like for the organization? Where do you want it to be in five years?
A: I'm very optimistic about our future: We want to continue to expand our program to reach all eligible schools and teachers, grow our individual giving program, and eventually move with our collaborative partner, Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley, into a new and larger space on Woodman Drive. It is worth mentioning that we would not be where we are today without the support of our nonprofit partners, including Goodwill, the Kids In Need Foundation and The Dayton Foundation.
Q: What are a few things you like about living and working in this region? What is one thing you would change?
A: I'm not originally from the region. I was raised in Springfield, Mo., which is very similar to Dayton demographically. After graduating from college, I lived in several cities across the country, never having immediate family nearby. As a family, we made a decision 10 years ago to move to the region so we could address that issue. I have to say it has been one of the best decisions we have made, both personally and professionally.
My position has afforded me the opportunity to network with many individuals and organizations in our community. From my perspective, I like seeing how the community has embraced its innovative heritage in order to reinvent itself over the past decade. I think the hard work is beginning to pay off.
Regarding the one thing I would change, I think I have been working on that since we opened Crayons to Classrooms. That’s still a work in progress!
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