Project Description

Colleges struggle with serving low income and first generation students. While 60% of the wealthiest students complete their studies and graduate, only 16% of low income college students graduate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Low income students cannot afford to sustain themselves on financial aid alone. 7 of 10 college students juggle working a full time job while striving to keep up with their schoolwork – inevitably hurting their grades, causing burn out and resulting in dropouts. Sponsors make contributions of time and money towards low income students but efforts have not proven to be effective. Help is typically localized and limited to alumni and students at a single university. And contributions are funneled into endowments rather than disbursed directly to students of need. Sponsors prefer a direct P2P model that gives them greater visibility into who is receiving the funds, how they are using them and the impact they are having on the students’ ability to achieve their goals. Arbol is a market network that helps low income college students raise funds to cover their life expenses, build their network and get advice by connecting them with sponsors. By integrating crowdfunding and social networking in a single platform, Arbol rewards sponsors, enabling them to contribute directly to students and develop a personal connection to the people they are helping while earning contribution credits to enhance their giving power.