Back 2 School America

Our primary goal is to level the playing field and make sure children have the tools they need to succeed in the classroom. Over the next five years (2022-2026), our goal is to increase the number of kits we distribute annually so that we are reaching at least 50,000+ students. Each of our Back 2 School kits contains approximately 30 essential school supplies, such as pencils and pens, folders, and notebooks. Our long term goal is to make sure that all children that living in low-income households each year have the vital school supplies necessary. While our Back2 School program is about providing the actually school supplies students need, it is also about building their self-confidence, since self-esteem is a critical element in a child's ability to achieve academic success and success in life. Our Back 2 School kits contain a "Note of Inspiration" which along with the school supplies let's the recipient know they are worthy of learning.

We recognize that the benefit of a solid education for a child is paramount in their ability to achieve success, success as defined by their ability to have more options, more opportunities and to make better choices. Ultimately, this benefits society as a whole.

While we are a young nonprofit, we have continued to grow each year. One way we do this is to take advantage of any media opportunities which in turn helps promote our name and our brand.

Another way we've been able to grow is by adding more community partners to distribute kits. When we first started the Back 2 School program we only worked with the YMCA of Metro Chicago. Now we have many more partners including Operation Homefront, Chicago Department of Family & Support Services (DFSS), Illinois Department of Child & Family Services (DCFS), UCAN, Vietnamese Association of Illinois, Neighborhood Boys & Girls Clubs, United African Organization, AUSL, Chinese American Service League, Heartland Alliance, Chicago Public Schools and others.

In 2015 we added a Build-A-Kit program, which has showing tremendous results, as we are getting more companies to support our school supplies program by engaging their employees in the assembly of the the kits. This program continues to be a significant factor in our ability to get more kits out to more kids in the years to come. In the summer of 2018, we launched Back 2 School America, after successful tests of expanding the Build-A-Kit program as well as our Buy-A-Kit program to other states.

In 2019 we add a "We Appreciate Teachers" program because we recognize the critical need for good teachers and the ability to retain them in the profession. Shining a spotlight on teachers and the import work they do will hopefully serve to keep good teachers teaching and help recruit new teachers to the profession.

In 2020 we embarked on a program to increase the size and diversity of the Board of Directors as a way to increase our stakeholder base.

We have undergone a transformation in a number of areas over the past 24 months that has had a measurable impact on the organization that will help to achieve the stability and growth necessary to achieve our stated goals.

We have increased the size of our Board of Directors by more than 30% in the past year. We also increased the diversity of our board by adding more women, more younger people, a person of color and individuals from different industries. These changes to the board have already produced desired results. We have implemented a new committee structure, put more controls in place, improved our fundraising efforts and have started to do more long-range thinking and planning to ensure the long-term success of the organization.

Our stakeholder base is growing through a series of initiatives. We've dramatically increased the number of sponsorships offered, which has brought in a notable amount of new corporate support. We've added new programming such as our "We Appreciate Teachers" contest, "Notes of Inspiration" - Home Edition and are in the process of launching a holiday Back 2 School kit. Each of these are helped garner more attention from potential supports and from the media.

In 2022 we are unifying under the name Back 2 School America, which will allow us to operate more efficiently and reduce some costs. It will also serve to better secure funding from national companies and organizations.

We have distributed over 9.0 million school supplies to more than 300,000 children in Back 2 School kits since inception.

In addition to increasing the number of children we served, we've grown the size of our database, donors, and supporters.

We've diversified our Board of Directors, increased it's size and contributions.

While we have made great strides we still have a long way to go to, in particular to reach our goal of making sure every child has vital school supplies.