Amscot Financial, a leading provider of convenient, consumer-oriented financial services, is asking customers to give $1 this month to support local public schools. It’s the 13th ‘Just a Dollar’ customer giving campaign to support local teachers and students through their local education foundation by providing targeted assistance beyond what public school budgets provide.
“We conduct this campaign because the generosity of our customers continues to make a tremendous difference in the lives of children in the community,” said Ian MacKechnie, founder and CEO of Amscot Financial. “Everyone sees the importance of investing in their local students and is eager to give back. It’s up to the community to help fill in the gaps where tax dollars and school budgets don’t fully meet the students’ needs.” Amscot Financial will match the first $10,000 in customer contributions and the company’s founder and his wife Jean are demonstrating their commitment to the effort by personally donating $50,000.
Now in its second decade, Amscot Financial’s ‘Just a Dollar’ campaign has cumulatively raised more than $1.2 million benefitting students throughout the company’s 20 county service territory. Classroom grants, extra support for struggling readers, teacher supply stores and student scholarships are all examples of how the funds have been used in past years.
This year’s campaign is coming at a time when more than 10,000 students displaced from Puerto Rico and other hurricane-damaged areas have enrolled in Florida schools. Many are arriving without the basic items they need to be successful in their new schools and local education foundations are stepping in the gap to provide school supplies, clothing and hygiene items so they can get back to the business of learning as quickly as possible.
“What our local educations especially appreciate about this support is that it can be invested in the areas where it’s needed most in each school district. The needs may be different in rural communities like Highlands and Hardee counties or in urban areas like Orange and Broward. Regardless, donors can rest assured that every dollar raised will remain in the communities where contributions are made and used to meet local student needs,” said Mary Chance, president of the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations, the statewide organization that distributes the funds raised by Amscot.
Founded in 1989, Amscot Financial employs more than 2,000 associates working at 237 retail branches and at the company’s corporate headquarters in Tampa. The company currently operates retail locations in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, Manatee, Sarasota, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Marion, Citrus, Flagler, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.
