Ways to Give
You decide how many kids we can say yes to.
In East Palo Alto, more children need a tutor, a robotics team, and a shot at college than we can reach today. Your gift this year turns a waitlist into a seat. $250 covers one child's full six weeks of summer camp, and any amount keeps the afternoons open.
Why now
The need in East Palo Alto is growing.
A local school closed, and families are feeling the strain of fewer resources and fewer safe places for their children. More than ever, parents are turning to Hope Horizon as a steady place after the school bell rings.
Every gift this year goes further, and further down a waitlist of kids who need a tutor, a mentor, and a shot at college. Your support decides how many we can say yes to.
Open Door monthly partners
Become a monthly partner.
Steady monthly support is what lets us plan a whole year for a student. Open Door partners are the backbone of this work.
Monthly gifts are the steady support behind every program.
Prefer to pick an amount first? The monthly giving page walks through what each level supports.
$25/mo
Steady support that lets us promise a student a whole year, not just the next month.
Partners can also give $50, $100, or $250 a month. You choose, and you can change or pause anytime.
Where it lands
This is what your gift is actually buying.
Not a campaign. Not overhead. An afternoon, five days a week, where a kid who is behind sits down next to an adult who is not in a hurry.
Camp is $250 for six weeks and 89 kids came this year. Our robotics team, the FIRST Robotics Competition team in East Palo Alto, grew from 21 students to 36. Twelve of our students are in college right now on Hope Horizon scholarships, and they stay on them by holding a 2.5 GPA, because we ask them to keep showing up too.
Forty years in one neighborhood. That is the whole strategy.
More ways to open a door
Pick the path that works for you.
Some of these are worth more to a student than a card payment, and cost you less. Open any one to see how it works.
Start here
Two paths cover almost everyone, and both take about a minute.
Give once
Card, bank transfer, or wallet
One gift, any size, straight into tutoring, robotics, camp, and scholarships. It takes about a minute and you'll get a receipt for your taxes immediately.
Give nowGive monthly
Most useful to usThe Open Door Circle
Monthly giving is the difference between hoping we can help a student and promising we can. A steady gift each month is what lets us plan a whole school year instead of a month at a time, and it is the single most useful thing a supporter can do for us. Change or pause it whenever you need to.
Join the Open Door CircleMake your gift go further
Same generosity, more of it reaching a student. Several of these cost you less than writing a check.
Employer gift matching
Doubles your giftTurn one gift into two
Many companies match what their employees give, dollar for dollar. If yours is one of them, your $100 becomes $200 and it costs you nothing extra. Ask your HR team for their matching gift process, and give them our EIN, 77-0151434. Some companies also match volunteer hours with a cash gift, so it's worth asking about that too.
Ask us for anything your HR needsDonor-advised fund (DAF)
Tax-smartMoney you have already set aside for this
A DAF is a charitable account you fund now and give from later. If you have one at Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, or a community foundation, you can recommend a grant to Hope Horizon in a few clicks. You already took the tax deduction when you funded the account, so this decision is purely about where the money goes.
You'll need our legal name, Hope Horizon East Palo Alto, and our EIN, 77-0151434.
Tell us a grant is comingStock and appreciated securities
Tax-smartOften the smartest gift you can make
If you own stock that's worth more than you paid for it, giving the shares directly is usually better than selling them and giving the cash. When you sell, you owe capital gains tax on the growth. When you give the shares, generally nobody pays that tax, and you can typically deduct the full market value.
The practical effect: the student gets the whole gift instead of what's left after the tax bill, and the gift costs you less. Email us and we'll send the transfer instructions your broker needs.
Get transfer instructionsCryptocurrency
Tax-smartSame tax logic as stock
The IRS treats crypto as property rather than currency, which means donating it works much like donating stock. Give it directly instead of cashing out first and you generally avoid the capital gains you'd owe on the sale, while deducting the fair market value.
We'll walk you through it. Tell us what you're giving and we'll send the details.
Start a crypto giftOther ways to open a door
Every one of these has funded a real part of this work.
Check or cash
Still works, still welcome
Make it out to Hope Horizon East Palo Alto and send it to:
1001 Beech Street
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
If you'd like a receipt sent a particular way, or you're giving on behalf of a church or business, put a note in with it and we'll take care of it.
In honor or in memory
A gift with someone's name on it
Mark a birthday, a graduation, a retirement, or the memory of someone who believed in young people. Tell us who it's for and we'll let the family or the honoree know that a gift was made, without naming the amount.
Give a tribute giftA gift in your will
Costs nothing today
A line in your will or a beneficiary designation on a retirement account costs you nothing now and can keep a door open in East Palo Alto long after. Some people name a specific amount, some name a percentage of what's left. Either is a real gift.
If you've already included us, please tell us, so we can thank you properly while we still can.
Talk about a legacy giftSupplies and in-kind gifts
Things instead of money
Snacks for camp, school supplies, laptops, materials for a robotics build. The catch with in-kind giving is that the wrong thing creates work instead of relief, so ask us first and we'll tell you what we actually need this month rather than what we needed last year.
Ask what we needHope Horizon East Palo Alto is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 77-0151434, and gifts are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. The notes above describe how these gifts generally work in the United States. We are not tax advisors, so check the specifics with yours or with your broker.
Partner as a company
Fund the competition robotics team in East Palo Alto and the pipeline of local STEM talent the Bay Area keeps asking for. Sponsor a season, match your team's gifts, or build a custom partnership.
Where your money goes
We show our work.
When you give to Hope Horizon, you can see exactly where it goes. We publish our audited financials and our Form 990 every year, and we have stewarded this community's generosity responsibly for four decades.
Our audited financials and Form 990 are published every year. Read them below and see exactly where the money goes.
Our impact report shows what that money produced last year.
Another way in
Giving is one way to back this work. You can also come to an event, volunteer at one, or partner with us as a church or a company.
Not ready to give? That is okay.
Send a note of encouragement to a student. It takes 30 seconds and it matters more than you would think.