Ridge Seniors Launch Non-Profit To Help Fund Student-Led Businesses, Clubs

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Two friends and Ridge High School seniors, Jack Schlenker and Leo van der Valk, started a nonprofit to help fund local student-led businesses and clubs.

The pair both participate in a variety of school clubs and activities. Through their participation, they learned that very few clubs receive school funding and are instead dependent on fundraisers and member dues to remain active.

This prompted to launch Incuba Fund last December.

"A lot of the time, clubs will spend more time fundraising than actually working with topics related to their club’s interests," said Schlenker. "We started IncubaFund to try to address some of these issues, first starting with our clubs and gradually working to expand from there."

Since launching, they have helped a number of businesses and clubs, including Basking Ridge Helping Hands, to aid them in their expansion to fall yard care.

They have also helped the Ridge High School Key Club, Card Club, and Physics Club.

Schlenker is hoping to continue to grow their organization to help others.

"In time, we hope we can create a self-sustaining organization to support student-led projects in the northern part of New Jersey. Our current goal is to grow our number of ongoing partnerships to 20, but in the future, we would love to expand beyond that," said Schlenker.

Incuba Fund is always looking for more students and organizations to partner with. For more information or to fill out a grant request form, visit incubafund.org.

Incuba Fund is also accepting donations on their website from those who want to support their mission to support student creativity. For more information, follow instagram.com/incubafund or linkedin.com/company/incuba-fund.

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