At Newsletter Pro, we know the impact of giving back, especially when it comes to children in need. That’s why every year, we collect donations for foster kids in our Idaho communities with our annual Fostering Christmas event. This is just one of the many reasons we appreciate Yoobi.
Yoobi was founded in June 2014 by Ido Leffler, an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor with an impressive track record of founding companies that incorporate a social mission. Inspiration for the business came from Leffler’s experience shopping for school supplies with his own children. After noticing a “distinct lack of vision and creativity” in most school products, and subsequently learning that over 99% of elementary school teachers in the U.S. pay for classroom supplies out of their own pocket, he knew he had to do something.
How Yoobi Began
Leffler founded Yoobi based on the one-for-one system. Each time a Yoobi school product was purchased, an item was added to a pack of school supplies to be donated to students in need, especially in poverty-stricken areas. With input from the Kids In Need Foundation, Leffler determined which supplies students needed the most.
Since founding, Yoobi has donated over 65 million school supplies to over 173,000 classrooms around the world.Â
A Teacher’s Paycheck
When teachers must spend their own money on resources and supplies for students, two things are likely to happen. Either teachers are financially unable to provide everything their students need, or the teachers go beyond their means to make sure their students have what they need, and their own livelihoods suffer because of it.
One survey showed that on average, elementary school teachers spend over $500 of their own money annually on supplies their students need. More than half of teachers in high-poverty school districts report that 75% of their students show up to school on the first day without any supplies of their own. The highest-poverty school districts also receive $1,200 less per student on average than the wealthier school districts do. This means those schools cannot provide these basic supplies because they have insufficient budgets. A student living in poverty with less access to regular supplies is 13 times less likely to graduate on time. This is motivation enough for companies like Yoobi to exist.Â
Kids In Need Foundation
Yoobi works with the Kids In Need Foundation to determine the most fundamental tools needed to support learning and creativity. Then, they identify which items teachers are most likely to buy out of pocket. With that information, Yoobi creates special school supplies to foster that learning, creativity, and philanthropy most effectively. Every Yoobi classroom pack is filled with enough sets of supplies to donate to 30 students. Every student box has pencils, crayons, colored pencils, erasers, glue sticks, a pencil sharpener, a folder, a ruler, and a set of scissors for the class to share. It may not seem like much at a glance, but studies have shown that when kids have brand-new school supplies they can call their own, their grades, classroom behavior, and self-esteem improve.
Yoobi understands how critical it is that all children have a chance to thrive, especially in school. They are the future, after all, and we have a responsibility to give back to them. However, giving back doesn’t have to be on such a grand scale. There are plenty of small ways to help, like donating money to charity or volunteering at a school event. Even though we don’t know what’s in store for our children, we can give them a better chance at success right now.
