Today we’d like to introduce you to Chantal and Justin Crompton.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Chantal and Justin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
This August will mark my 8th year teaching at O’Farrell High School, where the majority of my students are the first in their family to pursue higher education. My students are English learners, foster youth, sibling caretakers, and breadwinners of their families; some are even homeless. They are also high-achieving scholars being recognized nationally for their test scores and leadership. Remarkable students, with odds stacked against them, fill our city’s schools.
There is immense financial aid/scholarship access once students are accepted to college. However, many don’t get that far because it is so expensive to apply. AP Exams, SAT/ACT testing fees, and applications themselves cost $1000-$2500 for a competitive student. As you can imagine, that’s an impossible cost for a family struggling to keep up with the day-to-day cost of living. This leaves us with a massive opportunity gap. High achieving students from low-income families are not getting the same access to college as their more affluent peers.
Until we attack deep-rooted inequalities like this, systemic poverty will remain.
This is where Fine Print Funding was born. Four years ago, I did a GoFundMe to help all graduating seniors apply to 7+ colleges. Competitive students, who would have been limited to only an application or two, we’re able to apply broadly. With more opportunities to apply, they got more acceptances. With more acceptances came more financial aid packages to weigh. This made college a reality for students in a community that often sees odds stacked against them. I realized we needed to attack this inequality on a grander scale.
My husband and I officially got our 501(c)(3) status in March of 2019. Fine Print Funding raised $20,000 to give to our Fall 2019 Scholars Program, and have helped almost 200 students afford the costs of applying to college. We want to triple our impact in 2020.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with every startup, there are always challenges. My husband and I have done everything from the incorporation, to the branding, to the marketing, to the logistics, to event planning, to social media, and so forth. I am still teaching high school English full time, and my husband was in sales up until the past few months when he went into the company full time. Neither of us have cut a salary, as we find it important to put all money into the mission until we have more financial stability.
However, through it all, we resourced ourselves well with a fabulous lawyer who took us pro bono, a contract accountant to make sure our books are accurate, and a (now) four-person Board of Directors to help grow our mission.
It’s challenging to get grants and corporate donors at a newer nonprofit, as many want three years of data. We are in the first year of giving and data collection, so we are scraping together funds however we can in the meantime. Pardee Homes San Diego Division has believed in us from the start, as have several generous private entities.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Fine Print Funding story. Tell us more about the business.
As far as we know, Fine Print Funding is one of the only nonprofits in the country that covers this specific financial gap. There are amazing nonprofits that helps students with the academic and socio-emotional aspects of getting to college, but we are the only ones nationally that have a partnership with College Board to help pay for costs of AP exams ($94/exam!) for our scholars. There are subsidies and waivers to help cut down on the costs of applications, but the line to qualify often rules out many underserved students who need that support. We also partner closely with high school counselors and teachers to help students perfect their applications before helping them submit. In this way, we catch errors that can often exclude them from admission to universities that they’re otherwise qualified to attend. The looks on the students’ faces when they click “submit” is the part that I’m most proud of, or hearing younger siblings explain that they, too, can attend college because they see their older siblings making it a reality for their family.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We don’t believe in luck, besides the fact that we’re lucky to be able to interact with such incredible young people and help them achieve their big dreams. Justin and I were blessed to come from families that believed in higher education and supported us to reach that goal. I graduated from the University of Southern California and Justin graduated from York College of Pennsylvania. We had hard-working families who had the expertise and financial freedom to help us with the college application process. We are trying to make sure all students have a fair shot at the college-going process and aren’t limited by income or family background.
Pricing:
- The cost of a California State University application: $70
- The cost of a University of California application: $70
- The costs of a private school application: on average, $50-$100
- The cost of an AP exam: $94 ($53 with a state subsidy)* many competitive students take 3-5 exams each year
- The cost to take the SAT: $64.50
- The cost to take the ACT: $62.50
- The costs to send SAT scores to individual colleges: $12
Contact Info:
- Address: 4511 30th Street #6
San Diego, CA 92116 - Website: www.fineprintfunding.org
- Phone: 1-619-333-6507
- Email: fineprintfunding@gmail.com
- Instagram: @fineprintfunding
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/fineprintfunding
- Other: www.bonfire.com/fine-print-funding-inc/
Image Credit:
Brian Pollard, Hunter Weiss
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