CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Talent is everywhere in East Palo Alto. Opportunity is not.
Our students live minutes from some of the most valuable companies on earth. A partnership puts your funding, your people, and your expertise alongside an organization that has been in this neighborhood since 1984.
- Rooted in East Palo Alto since 1984
- Registered 501(c)(3), EIN 77-0151434
- Eight years of Form 990s published
WHY HERE
A community that has always done its own work.
East Palo Alto built its own schools, won its own city, and has been organising on its own behalf for sixty years. What it has not been given is a fair share of the wealth built on its doorstep. A corporate partnership is not a rescue. It is putting some of that abundance on the right side of the ledger, alongside people already doing the work.
What a partnership funds
One pipeline, TK to college.
This is the talent pipeline the Bay Area keeps asking for. The high school team is already competing; the pipeline beneath it starts this October.
Grades 1 to 8
FIRST LEGO League
FIRST LEGO League in elementary and middle school, starting October 2026, feeding the high school team.
High school
Churrobots, FRC #8048
East Palo Alto's competition team. Grew from 21 students to 36 this year, and went to Worlds in 2024.
College
Open Door Scholars
Twelve students in college right now on Hope Horizon scholarships, mostly first-generation.
WAYS YOUR COMPANY CAN PARTNER
Three places a company usually fits.
Most partnerships start in one of these and grow. Everything below is a starting point for a conversation, not a menu we can promise in advance. What we can host changes with the season and with what the programs actually need.
Engage your employees
Employees consistently tell nonprofits they want more than one disconnected service day. Recurring contact with the same students is what builds something people stay with.
- A coordinated service day, usually a facility or campus project
- A recurring volunteer crew during afterschool hours
- Skills-based volunteering, for example engineers with the robotics programs
- Career conversations or a workshop for older students
- An employee-led fundraiser, or an employee resource group that adopts the work
- A named contact at your company who keeps the relationship going
Invest in programs and places
Some needs are physical and some are ongoing. We will tell you which are live this year rather than sell you a tier.
- Underwrite a robotics season, a week of camp, or a tutoring cohort
- Support an event
- Fund a campus or facility improvement, which we can scope with you
- Unrestricted support, which is the most useful kind we receive
- A multi-year commitment, if your giving cycle allows it
Contribute expertise or resources
Ask us before sending things. The wrong donation creates work instead of relief, and we would rather tell you what this month actually needs.
- Laptops, tools, robotics kits, or software licenses
- Food, snacks, or school supplies
- Professional services, for example design, legal, financial, or technical help
- Training or staff-development resources
- Matching gifts and workplace giving
We do not publish sponsorship tiers or naming packages, because we do not currently have verified ones to offer. If recognition matters to your company, say so early and we will be straight about what we can and cannot do.
WHAT A USEFUL PARTNERSHIP LOOKS LIKE
Local, specific, and repeated.
The partnerships that work here are the ones a company can actually picture: a real room, real students, a season that starts and finishes. Employees can understand it, and they can come back to it.
One-time and ongoing are both welcome, and they are different commitments. A service day is a good introduction. A recurring crew during afterschool hours is what changes what we can plan for.
Anyone 18 or over working with students completes a background check first. Group projects need lead time so we can match them to something genuinely useful.
WHO ALREADY BACKS THIS WORK
Supported by this community for forty years.
Hope Horizon has received support from foundations, public institutions, churches, companies, and community members over its history. We name a supporter only when the nature and timing of that relationship is confirmed and they have agreed to be named. Companies can choose to be recognized or to give quietly, and we honor either.
Recognition
Two ways to be a partner. Both are honored.
Named
Be named here, and in the report.
Companies who choose recognition are listed on our partners page and in the year’s impact report, once the nature and timing of the partnership is confirmed and you have agreed to be named.
Quiet
Give quietly. We will never out you.
Some companies prefer to support the work without a logo attached. We honor that fully, and the written scope and the report back are exactly the same.
ACCOUNTABILITY
What you get back.
A conversation, not a pitch deck
We start by asking what your company is trying to do, then tell you plainly whether we are a fit.
A written scope
What the partnership funds, over what period, and what we will report back.
A report on what it funded
Specific, in plain language, tied to the programs your support actually paid for.
START A CONVERSATION
Tell us what you have in mind.
More ways to help
The talent pipeline the Bay Area keeps asking for starts here.
FIRST LEGO League for grades 1 to 8, the Churrobots in high school, Open Door Scholars in college. A partnership funds the whole pipeline and puts your people in the room.