Don's Net Café --Finalist in the @15 Community Impact Challenge

Introducing Don's Net Café from Santa Barbara, CA. Don's Net Café is one of the 15 finalists in the @15 Community Impact Challenge.




Dons Net Café is a group of high school students based at Santa Barbara High School founded seventeen years ago, when the group’s teacher and an IRS agent started a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (V.I.T.A.) free tax site. They were the first high school to ever be issued an Electronic Filing Number (EFIN) from the IRS. This year, they were recognized by the Los Angeles branch of the IRS as the "best (VITA) tax site in the nation." In addition to running a free tax preparation site however, Dons Net Café runs a number of programs to help the environment, such coordinating beach cleanups, graffiti removal, and an extensive electronic waste recycling program.




If selected as a challenge recipient, Dons Net Café would use the grant to supply their VITA site with supplies and maintain the professionalism of their services. As a high school with little resources, there are not enough basic supplies such as ink and paper for printing out tax forms to meet the demand of all the community members who wish to utilize them. Dons Net Café would use any additional money to expand their services to members of their local community college and parents of students at other local schools, as well as provide food and other basic necessities for underprivileged employees of VITA.












Between March 15-April 2, 2010, you get to decide which five of the 15 finalist teams of young social entrepreneurs will each receive $5,000 and which five teams will receive $1,500 each to expand their local ventures. So be sure to cast your vote on at15 between March 15 - April 2, 2010.