Thursdays and Fridays, KIPP St. Louis Dean of Students Miriam Alejandro greets her high school class with a prompt: “Which nonprofit should we donate to today?” It’s a hard question with no wrong answer, but a decision must be made. She presents the organizations to her students, describes their missions and needs. Then it’s put to a vote, and the organization that most of the class wants to donate to will receive a quarter, joining the charter school’s 17 other advisory periods’ donations.
“The students are connecting their knowledge of what they’re reading about with the nonprofits in the community,” Alejandro says, “especially when it comes to certain difficult issues facing our community. They find a way to make a choice between which one deserves the funds more and why we need to empower these charities.”
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Those donations come from a partnership with Givable, an organization that connects local nonprofits with potential donors. The goal: Instill philanthropy in pupils at an early age. Many times, Alejandro says, students later volunteer with organizations they discuss in class.
They research the organization on their own time. “Then, they’ll say: ‘Hey, Ms. Alejandro, this is what I found out: They don’t need volunteers, but they do need items to be donated. Can we, as a school, do something like this?’ They’ll come up with a drive. It’s one conversation that’s bringing about a total amount of change.”
