About

 

Our Mission

MY RICH AUNT connects individual donors directly with college and graduate students who need quick access to funds for trips home, study abroad programs, winter coats, dorm room essentials, and other expenses unlikely to be covered by financial aid.

MY RICH AUNT’s benefits:

For Donors

  • Tax-deductible donations to verified full-time college and graduate students

  • Satisfaction of making an immediate, concrete difference for a student.

For Students

  • Shame-free quick access to funds

  • Access to a community of “aunties and uncles” ready to help them, not just survive, but truly thrive in school.

All students can reach their highest potential and thrive when relieved of chronic financial anxiety.

I’ll never donate enough to get my name on a dorm building. No scholarships will bear my name. But there are 5 students at my alma mater wearing coats I purchased and one of them just returned from spending a semester studying in South Africa - thanks to my donations.

— Future My Rich Aunt Donor

The Vision 

 

Our Origin Story

MY RICH AUNT founder and media attorney, Terri James, went from public schools in working-class Los Angeles neighborhoods to Stanford and Harvard Law School.

In addition to the educational, emotional, and social challenges all college and graduate students experience, she remembers:

  • borrowing textbooks from the library when she couldn’t purchase her own copies.

  • lacking the required deposit, much less spending money, to participate in a study-abroad program.

  • shivering in a flimsy LA-appropriate jacket as a Harvard 1L until she earned enough from her work-study job to buy a winter coat.

Decades later, recalling the stress, anxiety, and feelings of shame, Terri became convinced students from similar backgrounds should have a quick, shame-free way to get “extra” funds.

Unlike “rich uncle” and billionaire Robert F. Smith, who spent $50 million of his own dollars to launch an emergency grant program for students, Terri is FAR from rich.

MY RICH AUNT will depend on communities of “aunties and uncles” committing to individual acts of generosity to make a difference in the lives of low- and moderate-income college and graduate students.

Think Back. Pay it Forward.

MY RICH AUNT is recruiting board members, advisors, and volunteers. This project won’t succeed without YOU.