The Open Door Circle
Sustaining monthly partners whose steady gifts let us plan a whole year for a student, and make long-term promises we can keep.
The Open Door Circle
Some gifts don't just help a kid.
They change a family's trajectory.
A first-generation student who finishes college changes the story for everyone who comes after them. Our leading donors are the reason that story keeps being written in East Palo Alto.
Start today
Become a monthly partner in two minutes.
Steady monthly gifts are what let us promise a student a whole year of tutoring, mentorship, and a place to belong. Choose an amount, and you're the reason a door stays open. Prefer to give once? Flip the toggle.
Every gift is tax-deductible and secure, and you can change or cancel your monthly gift anytime.
What a leading gift does
Your gift, followed all the way to a diploma.
At this level, a gift isn't a line item. It underwrites the things that cost real money and take real time: a season of robotics, an afterschool room that stays open five days a week, or the salary of a mentor who walks a student through the hard years. You don't just open a door. You hold it open until a kid walks all the way through.
We'll show you exactly who and what your gift reaches, and introduce you to the work in person whenever you'd like.
Ways to lead
Four circles of committed donors.
Find the one that fits how you want to give. Every one of them keeps a door open for a kid in East Palo Alto.
The Founders' Circle
Donors who have stood with East Palo Alto's youth for a decade or more. The faithful few behind four decades of open doors.
Leadership gifts
Major annual gifts that fund a full scholarship, a robotics season, or a staff role, with your family or fund's name on it if you wish.
The Legacy Circle
A planned or estate gift that funds East Palo Alto students long after all of us. The longest door you can hold open.
Put your name on a first-generation student's walk across the stage.
Make it go further
Smart, lasting ways to give.
Many of our leading gifts come in ways that stretch a dollar or leave a mark that lasts. We'll help you set any of these up.
Donor-advised fund
Recommend a grant from your DAF, one of the simplest and most tax-smart ways to make a major gift.
Appreciated stock
Give appreciated securities and avoid the capital gains, so more of your gift reaches students.
Crypto and digital assets
Donate cryptocurrency directly, often the most tax-efficient way to give an appreciated asset.
Name a scholarship
Endow or fund a named scholarship and walk a first-generation student all the way to campus, year after year.
Start a fundraiser
Turn a birthday, a milestone, or a marathon into a giving campaign and rally your own circle behind EPA's kids.
Issue a challenge match
Pledge to match every community gift up to a set amount, and multiply the generosity of everyone around you.
Want to give in a way you don't see here? Let's design it together.
Recognition, on your terms
Named where you want it. Quiet where you don't.
Our leading donors are recognized on our website and in our annual impact report, invited to see the work up close, and thanked in the stories we tell about the students they help.
Many of our most generous donors give quietly, and we honor that completely. You decide whether your name appears at all.
Take the next step
Hold a door open that stays open.
Join the Open Door Circle today, or tell us what you have in mind and we'll design a gift that fits your goals and your heart.