Where Does Neighbors For Schools Get Its Funding?
It's a fair question, and one I'm happy to answer directly.
Neighbors for Schools, Inc. is a brand new organization. We received our 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS in May 2025, launched our website, and began building community awareness in June. So when someone asks where the money comes from, the honest answer is: right now, mostly from our founder.
Startup Costs and Founder Investment
Every organization has startup costs. For Neighbors for Schools, those have included website development (what you see here), domain registration (neighborsforschools.org), Microsoft 365 licensing for organizational email, IT support (to assist with tightened security), and networking events to build community relationships. To date, our founder has personally contributed $310 to cover these operational costs out of pocket. Thus far, $310 is a fairly lean startup budget.
That is not a complaint. It's a choice. It's also worth noting that Neighbors for Schools received its 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS in just six days, far sooner than the typical processing timeline. What that meant in practice was scrambling through June to get the website, donation infrastructure, legal pages, and social media presence ready, faster than anyone planned.
Building something sustainable means getting the infrastructure right before asking the community to fund it. And it means that when donors give to Neighbors for Schools, their contributions go toward the mission, not toward figuring out whether the donation link works.
Speaking of which: our founder made the first donation to Neighbors for Schools personally, specifically to verify that the donation process was secure, functional, and donor-friendly before anyone else was asked to use it. That's the kind of detail that matters when you're asking people to trust you with their money.
Individual Donors
Individual donors (we love to call you "our Neighbors") are our primary funding source right now, and we're proud of that. Grassroots community support is exactly the kind of foundation a neighborhood-focused nonprofit should be built on. Every donation, regardless of size, directly supports our Meal Debt Reduction Fund and helps us build toward our first distribution to Cherokee County school nutrition programs.
Grants
We are not currently pursuing grants, and that's intentional. Most grant cycles issue funds in the spring, and applying for grants before establishing a track record of community support and program activity puts a new organization at a disadvantage. We're building that foundation now so that grant applications, when we submit them, are backed by real data and real community engagement.
Corporate Sponsorship and Community Partners
We are actively developing relationships with businesses and community partners who want to support our mission through sponsorships, in-kind contributions, and professional services. We're building a Community Neighbors page on our website to recognize and celebrate these supporters. If your business is interested in becoming a Community Neighbor, we'd love to hear from you at info@neighborsforschools.org.
Transparency Is Non-Negotiable
As a 501(c)(3) public charity, Neighbors for Schools is required to file an annual 990 with the IRS, which is a public document. Once filed, anyone can see exactly how our funds were raised and spent. We welcome that level of accountability. It's part of what makes formal charitable giving more trustworthy than informal community pledge drives, and it's one of the reasons Neighbors for Schools exists in the first place.
We're small right now. We're honest about that. But we're building something real, and we're doing it the right way.
