Edina Parents' Kickstarter-Style Website Connects Donors With Students in Need

Meg Rodriguez, a former co-chair of the Edina Education Fund, had been thinking a lot about how to connect volunteers and donors interested in children’s education with the Edina students who needed help the most.

A friend of hers had recently called to say that her son was home from college and looking to tutor local high schoolers.

“He did a fabulous job helping kids who were struggling academically to get ready for their semester finals,” Rodriguez said, “and that sort of sparked the idea in my mind like, ‘This is crazy: There are probably a bunch of Edina kids here, and other people here in Edina who might tutor.”

Not long afterward, in late January or early February, Rodriguez had a conversation with her friend Idith Almog, an Edina school board member. Almog had recently attended a conference on crowd-sourced, Kickstarter-style funding methods and was excited by the possibility of using the technology locally.

Last week, Rodriguez and Almog launched EdinaGiveAndGo.org, a high-gloss website where Edina residents can read about specific needs of area youth—for academic tutoring, or home Internet access, or transportation to football practice—and anonymously donate their time, money, or hand-me-downs.

“The whole idea was sparked from a casual conversation that turned quickly serious,” Rodriguez said. “While there is an increasing population of kids who are suffering, there’s also a limitless spirit of goodwill and generosity here as well.”

The project has earned the endorsement of the school district, and the Edina Education Fund is handling donations. Funding for the website and associated costs—including a summer intern—has come from Rodriguez, Almog and their friends and neighbors.

“What we were imagining was a place where people could go, log onto a website, quickly figure out where they can either volunteer or donate, and help one child at a time 37,” Rodriguez said. “They can read a story about a kid who maybe wants to play trombone in the fifth-grade band, but can’t afford a trombone, or wants to go to a technology class in the summer, but doesn’t have the money to enroll.”

Already, 15 students' $50 registration fees for the South View Middle School bike riding program have been paid for through the website.

EdinaGiveAndGo is largely modeled after DonorsChoose.org—a national crowd-sourced, education-funding platform—and resembles the site in details including the home-page animations on the category titles.

But EdinaGiveAndGo’s main innovation is to accept more than just donors’ money, coordinating volunteer activity, seeking gifts of used electronics, instruments or sporting equipment, and helping students find rides to after-school activities.

“One of the biggest needs we are finding among kids in our community is transportation,” Rodriguez said. “There are a tremendous number of kids who want to participate in activities, but they don’t have a ride.”