{"id":49052,"date":"2020-11-24T11:22:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T16:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=49052"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:56:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:56:07","slug":"nonprofit-adapts-to-covid-19-by-switching-to-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/nonprofit-adapts-to-covid-19-by-switching-to-scholarships\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Adapts to COVID-19 by Switching to Scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for nonprofits\u2019 services, it has made it nearly impossible for many of them to operate as normal. So, they\u2019ve had to innovate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the San Diego-based nonprofit organization Cinderella\u2019s Attic as an example. For the first time in nearly 15 years, Cinderella\u2019s Attic, which has traditionally provided free formal wear and accessories to high school girls from low-income families, was unable to hold its annual Prom Boutique event. In its place, the nonprofit is launching a scholarship program to help young women further their education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the pandemic, we haven\u2019t been able to help the hundreds of girls that we normally reach each year,\u201d said Kerry Spark, founder and president of Cinderella\u2019s Attic. \u201cSo, we are having to reinvent ourselves. Now we are launching a scholarship program<\/a> to help these same girls not only see the various opportunities available to them but to help them access those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the foreseeable future, all donations<\/a> to Cinderella\u2019s Attic will go directly into its scholarship fund. Every $1,000 raised will help the organization provide another girl with a scholarship.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spark came up with the idea for Cinderella\u2019s Attic while she was a student in Boston studying to be an educator. There, she became hyper-aware of the financial struggles that so many young women faced during senior year of high school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw that this was affecting them mentally and emotionally as well,\u201d Spark said. \u201cMany of the students who I personally worked with as an educator at that time didn\u2019t have the ability to attend their senior proms, which, in my eyes, wasn\u2019t an event that should be missed. They couldn\u2019t afford a dress or shoes. Some hadn\u2019t even worn a dress before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Spark relocated to the West Coast, she saw a similar situation. With a desire to help these girls build confidence and feel comfortable in their own skin, she decided to start Cinderella\u2019s Attic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 14 years, the nonprofit held an annual Prom Boutique. It transformed a local venue to look like a chic boutique with dresses, shoes, purses, jewelry and other accessories, which girls could pick up for free. Girls were also provided with free makeup and hair trials to get some ideas for prom night. In its first year, the nonprofit helped about 20 girls. In 2019, however, the organization helped more than 160 girls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese simple acts of kindness —  just by letting these girls know that we care and are willing to help — make a lasting difference on their confidence and character at an impressionable age,\u201d said Spark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Prom Boutique, which was scheduled to happen in April, was canceled due to the pandemic. For the time being, Cinderella\u2019s Attic will put its effort and energy towards building its scholarship program. Scholarships will be awarded to underserved young women in the San Diego area, who otherwise would have benefited from the annual Prom Boutique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are really excited to launch the scholarship program and believe that it is the natural evolution of our program at Cinderella\u2019s Attic,\u201d said Spark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TUN\u2019s full interview with Spark is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for nonprofits\u2019 services, it has made it nearly impossible for many of them to operate as normal. So, they\u2019ve had to innovate.  Take the San Diego-based nonprofit organization Cinderella\u2019s Attic as an example. For the first time in nearly 15 years, Cinderella\u2019s Attic, which has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":49054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[645,230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discourse","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy.png",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy-256x144.png",256,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy.png",1200,675,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy.png",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy.png",1200,675,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for nonprofits\u2019 services, it has made it nearly impossible for many of them to operate as normal. So, they\u2019ve had to innovate.  Take the San Diego-based nonprofit organization Cinderella\u2019s Attic as an example. For the first time in nearly 15 years, Cinderella\u2019s Attic, which has…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nonprofit-Adapts-To-COVID-19-By-Switching-To-Scholarships-copy-1024x576.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}