iFoster began in early 2010 when co-founders Reid & Serita were trying to think of ways to help our most at-risk children and youth, those in foster care. We all know the problems, the under-funding, the lack of consistent communications, the lack of influence, the lack of community. It occurred to Reid & Serita that if they could bring the millions passionate and fragmented members of the foster care community together, great things could be accomplished.
An online community seemed to make perfect sense - a really convenient and private place for supporting each other, asking questions, providing advice, recommending information and using the power of the group to improve the lives of children. The big question was what would bring everyone together - what was a key problem the community could work on solving that would start the ball rolling.
Closing the over $1 billion funding gap to cover basic needs seemed like a good place to start. Raising a billion dollars seemed pretty daunting, but what if we could save a billion, wouldn’t that be just as good?
Having worked for large corporations, Reid & Serita had received benefits that included group discounts at various retailers. Who could benefit more from discounts than a community that doesn’t receive enough financial support to provide for the basic needs of the children in their care?
So with this as a starting point, on evenings and weekends, Reid negotiated with discount providers and worked out how to create a non-profit, while Serita created the business plan and built a website. In October of 2010, iFoster was ready to test its beta website and first program, Get Perks!, that aggregated over 100,000 discounts at retailers nationwide.
To get feedback on Get Perks!, and ask about the best way to contact foster families, emails were sent to a dozen state child welfare departments. This is when things got interesting. Instead of feedback, one state department jumped right in and told their agencies about iFoster. The next day iFoster got its first hundred members, and those members told other members, and iFoster went viral.
We didn't get through that first day before people were telling us that our programs could benefit alot more children and youth than those in formal foster care, and would we consider expanding to include informal foster care and low income families. So over time we have. Our programs are now available to caregivers and youth who can benefit from our life changing resources.
In the 18 months since then, the iFoster community has grown to be one of the largest and most inclusive nonprofits serving child welfare and low income families, supporting over 1 million children across 50 states. Members include thousands of formal and informal foster care familes, low income families, emancipated youth, hundreds of other nonprofits, and government departments from 26 states.
In August of 2011 we launched our second program called "Get Connected!" in response to our community's most frequently requested need, inexpensive computers and Internet access to help their kids succeed and graduate from school. In partnership with Microsoft and LifeSpan Technology Refurbishing, iFoster offers high-quality, low-cost, business-class laptops and desktops, including Windows 7, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft software, shipped directly to customers, for prices far below the cost of the software alone. And that's not all, Get Connected! also includes free online training for hardware, software and using the Internet - and free tech support for anyone who has questions about anything computer related. Get Connected has been a huge hit, providing over 1,000 computers helping over 2,000 children and youth. Since launching we've also added a partnership with AT&T that offers signficant discounts to our community on mobile products and services. Next up will be a discounted broadband Internet partnership that will provide sub-$9.00 a month DSL, with no contracts, credit checks or restrictions. Stay tuned.
We have attracted some wonderful Board members, fantastic volunteers and tremendous advisors who are helping to move iFoster forward. Despite the fact that iFoster went viral sooner than anticipated and we’ve had some catching up to do, we couldn’t be happier with the early interest and potential to help vulnerable children and youth by providing life changing resources.
Our focus is, and always will be, on providing resources for the most at-risk of our members, emancipating foster youth who are about to leave the child welfare system with little to no support and are expected to be independent, successful adults. We design our programs with emancipating foster youth in mind, and to be scalable to extend to the larger iFoster community as appropriate.
For those who have joined iFoster, thank you very much and please stay tuned for more programs to stretch funding, share information and influence the system for the better. For those who are just learning about iFoster, this is a great time to join, and/or support children with life changing resources.
Our Team
Our Programs
What's Next
|
|
Fast Facts
|
|
Over 10,000 members including youth, families, non-profit and gov't agencies in child welfare
Over 1,000,000 children & youth supported by iFoster members.
Over 1,000 computers delivered enabling 2,500+ children and youth.
Over $20 Million in savings realized.
|
|
|