1. Giving a student a chance at a brighter future.

   When students are awarded an educational scholarship from the AAA Scholarship Foundation, they are given a fair shot at success. Scholarship programs give children, from low income families the chance to decide for themselves which school to attend, one that is best suited for them. Take our very own Noah Allen, for example. Noah Allen, a high school junior in Georgia, comes from a low-income, single-parent household in a difficult neighborhood, and was underperforming in school. Since being awarded an educational scholarship and enrolling at The Dinoff School for the Gifted, Noah has become a leader both in school at at home. “Noah is a shining example of what our state can do for its future,” says Lesley Dinoff, the school’s Headmaster. “He will have options and choices that he never would have had without the AAA scholarship. Giving families access to educational opportunity will only reward us as a community, state and nation as we will see with Noah as he becomes an adult, able to not only survive, but thrive.”

2. Tax credit

   When individuals or corporations make a redirected tax payment to a tax credit scholarship foundation, they may receive up to a 100 percent tax credit for every dollar they redirect. Your contribution can be used to fund scholarships for children in a specific region, or across a state.

3. Higher graduation rates

   When students receive educational scholarships, allowing them to go to the school of their choice, results in a significantly higher graduation rate. An evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) — a voucher program for low-income children in Washington, D.C. — revealed that over 90 percent of DCOSP students graduated from high school, compared to just 70 percent of their peers with similar characteristics who remained in D.C. public schools.

4. Increases in public school achievement

   Research has shown that greater degrees of competition are associated with greater improvements in students’ test scores at the public schools. This is also true for students with disabilities. A 2008 study conducted by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, evaluating the impact of exposure to a voucher program for disabled students in Florida, concluded that “contrary to the hypothesis that school choice harms students who remain in public schools, this study finds that students eligible for vouchers who remained in the public schools made greater academic improvements as their school choices increased.”

5. Personal satisfaction

   Of course many will say that helping those in need “is the right thing to do,” but there’s more to it than that. A 2008 study to examine if there is a direct connection between one’s financial and emotional wealth, conducted at the Harvard Business School by Professor Michael Norton and his colleagues, “showed that those who reported spending more on others, what the team called ‘prosocial’ spending, also reported a greater level of happiness, while how much they spent on themselves had no impact on happiness.” That’s right, spending money on someone else can make you even happier than spending it on yourself!

As you can see, there are many reasons to redirect your tax payments to an educational scholarship foundation. Everyone has different causes that are near and dear to their heart, but contributing to the future success of a student has many benefits that go far beyond your initial contribution.

The AAA Scholarship Foundation team has invested more than 15 years devoted to passionately advocating for the under-served, under-represented and academically disadvantaged members of our communities. Find out how you can contribute to change the future of someone in need through your redirected tax payment.