ABOUT US

We are an educational, not-for-profit organization, which specializes in creating and managing service-learning programs for young people. Our most popular and best known program is the Penny Harvest, the largest child philanthropy program in the United States.

Other Common Cents programs include the Student Community Action Fund, our high school leadership council, and Near Peer, our mentoring program.

Common Cents grew from the desire of a four-year-old (our Co-Founder, Nora Gross) to feed a homeless man in 1991. That need led her to ask her father (Teddy Gross, our other Co-Founder and our Executive Director) how she could help. His quest to answer that question gave birth to Common Cents and the Penny Harvest. Read the full story in Nora’s own words.

And since 1991, children between the ages of four and 14 have been converting their natural compassion for others into action by collecting pennies and turning those pennies into grants for community organizations. The Penny Harvest shows young people they have the ability to change the world by introducing them to the power of philanthropy and service during their formative years. As children help others, they develop their generosity and moral character, and they learn through practice the skills and responsibilities of democratic participation.  Learn all about the Penny Harvest.

Common Cents Mission:
Common Cents, creator of the Penny Harvest, nurtures a new generation of caring and capable young people between the ages of four and 14 by enabling them to strengthen their communities through philanthropy and service-learning.

Visit the Common Cents website at: http://www.CommonCents.org.