Back to school: non-profit organization Adopt-A-Classroom is helping get teachers the supplies they need, but can its business model pass the test?

South Florida CEO, Nov, 2004 by Jennifer LeClaire

Jamie Rosenberg was used to wheeling and dealing as a mergers and acquisitions attorney during the 1990s. But while his clients acquired companies to meet their needs, he found one area always struggling to find enough resources: schools.

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In between overseeing strategic alliances and hostile takeovers. Rosenberg mentored a student at a pre-school for mentally and physically challenged children. He noticed the child's classroom lacked adequate supplies, and that realization convinced him to trade in his corporate suit to launch a crusade to help fill the widening budget gaps schools nationwide are facing.

Rosenberg quit his job in 1998 and launched the not-for-profit Adopt-A-Classroom (AAC), with an aim to have corporations donate money to the school of their choice in return for a full accounting of how the money was used. The program has so far struck a chord, with 1,000 classrooms adopted in 2003 alone. Rosenberg predicts that number may double by yearend. Indeed, AAC has raised $2.5 million and posted 80 percent year-over-year growth since 1997.

"My vision is that one day every classroom in America will be adopted, and collectively we all share in the responsibility of educating our youth and creating opportunities for each student to achieve his or her maximum potential," Rosenberg says.

Those involved, and many who know about the program, say it is an ambitious effort. But question remain about how a three-person staff, with two volunteers, can affect any significant change in the education funds gap. Rosenberg answers the question by laying out a strategy simple enough for a second grader to understand: talk up the program in corporate circles and vigorously network to evangelize its cause.

AAC also makes its donation model easy to understand. Corporations or individuals give as little as $500 to a classroom they choose, or one identified by AAC as being in need. The amount is transferred into an account and the classroom's teacher is allowed to draw on the funds to pay for supplies or other resources that are ordered online through AAC-approved vendors. Itemized invoices are given to donors so they can see exactly how the money was spent.

That detailed level of reckoning, Rosenberg says, is important during an era when the National Council of Nonprofit Associations is piling extra scrutiny on charities and demanding greater accountability from them. Indeed, Rosenberg says AAC recently began an evaluation to assess its impact on classrooms, the results of which will not be available until next year. Still, positive results are coming to the surface.

The Dade Reading Council presented AAC with its 2002 Literacy Award for recognition of its contributions to that county's school system. Educators, too, are voicing their appreciation. Amanda Farrey, a librarian at Phillis Wheatley Elementary in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, says without AAC her school's media center would not have projector bulbs, and many of its students would be without even the basic supplies, which parents often cannot afford to buy for their children.

"We use most of the $500 to purchase reading incentives for the students, like pencils, folders and erasers," Farrey says. "It works well for us because we don't have an active PTA and it gets the kids reading."

Her family owns Miami-based Farrey's Wholesale Hardware & Lighting and the company sponsors the library. Big donors such as Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins franchise, real estate magnate Donald Trump, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's and Slimfast also pitch in to support AAC classrooms.

"We adopted the entire Holmes Elementary School again this year and we know that every penny we put in goes toward materials that kids desperately need," Marlins spokesman P.J. Loyello says. "You don't usually get the opportunity with a charity to actually go in and take a look and see what the money does. In this case we can."

Still, some analysts express concerns that the money may not be going where it is needed the most, especially where individual donors are concerned.

"The money may end up going into classrooms that are already well funded because the individuals who can afford to donate live in more affluent neighborhoods," says Helen Monroe, a former schoolteacher who is now chief executive of the Endowment Development Institute, a philanthropy consultancy in Vista, Calif.

Rosenberg says sponsors can adopt any classroom nationwide, but his marketing efforts focus on schools that need resources the most. Larry Meyer, spokesperson for the Knight Foundation, confirms Rosenberg's claims in so far as the AAC's work in Miami-Dade County.

"The program's willingness to concentrate on Overtown and East Little Havana schools--two areas where we have been concentrating so much time and attention--is the primary reason we've donated $150,000 to Adopt-A-Classroom." Meyer says.

While the program has gained community backing--Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is a fan and Miami Beach City Manager Jorge M. Gonzalez is on AAC's board of directors--Rosenberg faces significant challenges to expand AAC's reach, especially when it comes to competing with increasing numbers of other charities for funding.