‘GradeFund’ Provides Pay for Grades

As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. Now, brothers Michael E. Kopko ’07 and Matthew Kopko want to leverage the power of communities to help pay for college.

Their new web application, GradeFund, uses the “marathon model” to achieve this goal, said Matthew, a member of the Princeton class of 2008. Just as marathon runners can ask friends and family to pledge money toward a race bid, GradeFund allows students to invite family members, friends, doctors, coaches, and other community members to pledge money towards their education.

Donors can calibrate their pledges to reward students for better grades. Students upload their school transcripts directly onto the Web site, and if they indicate good marks over the course of a semester, Gradefund collects sponsors’ money and sends it to the student’s school. Donors can also support specific “causes,” such as a field of study.

Sponsorships per grade can range from a few dollars to upwards of $1,000.

“There are no limits on how much students can raise. The sky’s the limit,” Michael explained.

Michael said inspiration for the project came from seeing students graduate with thousands of dollars in tuition loans.

“We’re trying to do two simple things: bring the concepts of community and incentive into student achievement,” he said. “We believe small incentives help encourage students to perform well academically.”

The brothers—who also founded DormAid, a company that offers housekeeping and laundry service on several college campuses including Harvard—said they hope that the program will spread to more campuses, depending on how well students spread word of the site.

Eliot House resident Tony W. Wang ’11 is helping publicize GradeFund through word of mouth, on Facebook, and via E-mail. “I thought it was very innovative and something Harvard students should know about,” he said of the site.