We have now added three counties and all of the elementary, middle and high schools in each:

• Fairfax County, VA
• Loudoun County, VA
• Ada County, ID

We proactively added these entire school districts. However, you can still use the site and send us a note to add your child’s school as well.

Here is some background information on Raise for Future. Raise for Future is a fund raising tool for your child’s school. There is no cost to you, as you shop online, at name brand stores, your child’s school earns money.

Raise for Future does not sell anything, we merely provide links to top stores such as OfficeDepot, Disney, Macy’s, Starbucks, and currently over 400 other online stores.

To participate, simply:

• 1. register once (it is free) – Register at Raise for Future here
• 2. choose your Childs school from the list (all Fairfax and Loudoun County schools are listed)
• 3. choose, or search, for the store online you are going to visit, such as Macys.com and click through

Before you click through you will see the % of your purchase that will go to your school. After your purchase you will see in your account how much you have earned for your school. You pay the same prices you always pay, the store provides a percent back from the purchase.

It is available to use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can read more about why it was started here.

Last year I wrote about my boys, twins, participating in a fund raiser for their school. It was interesting to me to learn two things.

First, their elementary school was brand new and did not have a playground which I found odd.

Second, that they were raising funds for the school in many ways, such as a bingo night and selling catalog items before Christmas.

I took this opportunity to try and help both the school raise funds and my boys learn about online e-commerce, blogs, twitter, marketing and more. The company that was providing the catalog items had an online website, it was cumbersome at best, and the items were not the greatest.

Tracking the Fundraiser
We created a blog for the boys, a twitter account, and a unique landing page for those shopping online to use the boys identification codes when shopping so they would receive credit. The first article to kick it off is found here entitled “Teaching my Boys Blogging, eCommerce and Twitter. The final article was posted here entitled Teaching my Twins Online Commerce through Fundraising.

Fundraiser Experience
Long story short, the boys won a ride to a pizza lunch in a Hummer limousine, however the fundraising experience, items they sold and difficult online shopping experience led my business partner Chris and I to believe their had to be a better way.

Created Raise for Future
We decided to create a site that makes fund raising for organizations, such as schools, easy. Users, such as parents, can shop at any of the partner stores, and a percentage of the sale is provided to the organization. Partner stores in the directory are some of the top online merchants. Users shop at the same online stores they shop at today, pay the same prices every one else pays, and their organization receives a percentage of the final purchase from the merchant through Raise for Future. We consult and accelerate our own start-ups through Phase One Accelerators.

About Phase One Accelerators
Phase One Accelerators is an “accelerator” providing launch phase consulting and online marketing services, as well as incubating and accelerating new startups. Founders are serial entrepreneurs with extensive start-up, online marketing, and venture capital experience. Phase One Accelerators is based in Northern Virginia an Boise Idaho. Raise for Future is a wholly owned and operated by Phase One Accelerators.

See the press release here on the launch of Raise for Future.