Post-Grad Charity


Post-grad life can sometimes seem as if you’re living in limbo. If you’re not one of the 69.4 percent of lucky young adults aged 20 to 24 to be employed, making ends meet can be seemingly impossible.

Rent, groceries, bills, costs of having a social life, gas/car insurance if you’re a driver, and student loan payments add up quickly, and can be discouraging of implementing charitable practices in your life.

In fact, the average college graduate will leave their college or university with a degree of their earning, as well an more than $30,000 in student loan debt. So it’s not surprise that the resourceful post-grads of today are finding ways to solve their debt crisis–and for anyone who’s had to pay back student loans or accept weekly calls from Sallie Mae, it is most definitely a crisis.

Recent graduates have even figured out a way to make these payments meaningful and charitable. What are they?

Sponsor Change

This organization has three main goals: to help young adults surge some high-impact non-profit volunteer work into their resumes, increase civic engagement, and decrease the student loan burden. By creating a Change Agent profile, you can propose community service projects and ask for sponsorship. Each hour of charitable work earns Change Agents somewhere between $10 and $20 and they go directly to your student loan payments so sponsors don’t have to worry about you actually spending it on a wild night out.

Career-Specific Repayment Opportunities

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program | Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program | National Health Service Corps

Depending on what field you enter, there are a number of programs offering reprieves on any remaining federal student-loan balances after a certain number of years in public service, teaching in underprivileged schools and communities, or providing healthcare in underserved areas. And these are just three potential opportunities to give where it’s needed, and to shave off some of that debt.

ZeroBound

Utilizing a unique crowdfunding platform, ZeroBound aims to connect volunteers with donors to create a community of charitable young adults. By creating a profile, users are able to detail the volunteer projects they are involved with, as well as a financial goal for donations. If their campaign is a success, the earnings of their crowdfunding campaign is applied directly towards their student loan debt.

“We hope to use the trend of crowdfunding to not only help a generation pay off their debt, but also increase volunteerism among an age bracket that actually volunteers the least,” said Kelli Space, ZeroBound co-founder.