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Welcome to Common Cents!We are an educational, not-for-profit organization, which specializes in creating and managing service-learning programs for young people. Our most popular and best known program is the Penny Harvest, the largest child philanthropy program in the United States. Other Common Cents programs include the Student Community Action Fund, our high school leadership council, and Near Peer, our mentoring program. See our mission statement and learn more about service-learning.Common Cents grew from the desire of a four-year-old (our Co-Founder, Nora Gross) to feed a homeless man in 1991. That need led her to ask her father (Teddy Gross, our other Co-Founder and our Executive Director) how she could help. His quest to answer that question gave birth to Common Cents and the Penny Harvest. Read the full story in Nora’s own words. Since 1991, children between the ages of four and 14 have been converting their natural compassion for others into action by collecting pennies and turning those pennies into grants for community organizations. The Penny Harvest shows young people they have the ability to change the world by introducing them to the power of philanthropy and service during their formative years. As children help others, they develop their generosity and moral character, and they learn through practice the skills and responsibilities of democratic participation. Learn all about the Penny Harvest. During the 07/08 school year, almost a half million children from 785 New York City schools took part in the Penny Harvest, collecting $656,755.23 in pennies. After months of research and study, more than 9,000 children sitting on 606 Philanthropy Roundtables made 1,513 monetary grants to non-profits, such as women’s shelters, animal rights organizations, community gardens and senior centers, and carried out 345 Neighborhood Service projects. Every penny collected went back to the community. Common Cents partners with organizations across the country to bring the Penny Harvest to students in the Capital Region of NY, Colorado, Florida, Seattle, WA, as well as select individual schools. Common Cents Mission: Common Cents, creator of the Penny Harvest, nurtures a new generation of caring and capable young people between the ages of four and 14 by enabling them to strengthen their communities through philanthropy and service-learning. (back to top) What Is Service-Learning? Service-learning is an educational method that entwines the threads of experiential learning and community service. It meets educational objectives through real-world experiences, while tapping youths as resources to benefit their schools and communities. Guided by teachers and community leaders, young people address real community needs by planning and executing service projects that are carefully tied to curricula. This hands-on learning enhances comprehension, academic achievement, citizenship, and character development, often reaching students who haven’t responded to traditional educational models. Service-learning is education in action: developing critical-thinking and problem solving skills; taking on issues such as hunger, homelessness, and diversity; and valuing people of all ages as citizens with talents to offer. (back to top) Source: www.nylc.org (National Youth Leadership Council) Click to see Common Cents’ IRS Form 990 |
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