SOAR FOUNDATION

12/02/2025

Hope everyone had a warm thanksgiving with family and friends! This year’s Giving Tuesday offically pivjs off tonight at 9pm PT. Please see details in the slide. Thank you all for the continuous support!

树华致力于帮助中国农村教育发展 已助学： 30年 帮助了： 约18,000名学生， 30年工薪支出 为“0” 1v1捐款项目： 高中奖学金： $450/每生每年 大学奖学金： $700/每生每年 幼儿助学金： $150/每生每年 幼师工资补助：$500/每师每年 *....

11/16/2025

Calling for Googlers, please donate your $400 credit to SOAR before 11/21~ Thank you! Link direct to the donation page below~

树华致力于帮助中国农村教育发展 已助学： 30年 帮助了： 约18,000名学生， 30年工薪支出 为“0” 1v1捐款项目： 高中奖学金： $450/每生每年 大学奖学金： $700/每生每年 幼儿助学金： $150/每生每年 幼师工资补助：$500/每师每年 *....

11/16/2025

Calling for Googlers~ please donate your $400 credit to SOAR before 11/21~ Thank you! Link below directly to the donation page https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wBUyWMmReoeIu5lpAy6CUv6W7Ghl3v9fLiTT24z8m4I/edit?usp=sharingd

树华致力于帮助中国农村教育发展 已助学： 30年 帮助了： 约18,000名学生， 30年工薪支出 为“0” 1v1捐款项目： 高中奖学金： $450/每生每年 大学奖学金： $700/每生每年 幼儿助学金： $150/每生每年 幼师工资补助：$500/每师每年 *....

10/18/2023

SOAR Annual Summary😍

12/15/2022

Happily dancing exercises for Child Star kindergarten kids 💃

SOAR FOUNDATION shared a post on Instagram: "Kids from our sponsored Child Star Kindergarten are doing dancing exercises. 👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️ 我们资助的童星幼儿园的小朋友们在寒风中跳舞暖身。👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️ ...

12/09/2022

11/29/2022

Giving Tuesday starts in about one hour! Everyone is welcomed to donate as little as $10 to help SOAR to win a percentage of $1.2million matching bonus! Thank you!

11/24/2022

11/30/2021

Happy 26th birthday to SOAR and Giving Tuesday

Back in 1994, when Ms. Chang, the founder of SOAR FOUNDATION went to China for a business trip, she saw a group of homeless teenagers running around in Guangzhou train station. Ms. Chang was shocked and decided to help them to go back to school. Then she went back to the states and the idea was encouraged by several of her friends. So in 1995, Ms. Chang donated $100,000 as the first scholarship fund and founded SOAR FOUNDATION in San Francisco. In the first year, SOAR provided scholarships to 261 students.

During the 26 years, SOAR helped more than fourteen thousand students with more than thirty-four thousand scholarships. As a non-profit organization, SOAR is currently based in Fremont, CA, with more than fifty volunteers. Many SOAR alumni also joined our volunteer group and became donors. They’ve been wanting to help current students just like SOAR helped them.

Mr. S graduated from Tsinghua University and is currently doing cancer research in the states. He is currently a volunteer and a donor of SOAR.

Ms. T was an orphan from a small village in Inner Mongolia. Thanks to SOAR, she is currently living in Beijing with her loving husband and two adorable kids. Ms. T is also the chief volunteer in SOAR Beijing office.

Mr. H, from a mountain village in Yunnan province, whose parents have been handicaped since he was a kid, received SOAR scholarships for six years. He earned a BS and a MS degree from Beijing Institute of Technology. Currently works at Kunming Branch of People’s Bank of China. (Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province)

Ms. L was a minority student of Miao in a poor mountain village in Guizhou Province. Currently she’s an elementary school teacher back in her hometown. Ms. L called herself the daughter of SOAR.

Mr. Z, from a village in Hunan province, his hometown has a nickname called “the impoverished mountain-top village”. Currently he’s doing his PhD study in Tokyo University, Japan.

Mr. ZJ, an orphan, and grew up with his grandma, currently works as an early education consultant. He also met his wife, who used to be a SOAR student too. Now the family of four live happily in Beijing.

Ms.W, from a single parent family in a village in Henan province. Currently working as a QA engineer in Beijing with her husband and baby.

Above are just a few examples of SOAR students. For 26 years, SOAR FOUNDATION has kept its promise to donors, “every penny of the donated scholarship went to the students.” Special thanks to our SOAR donors, because of all of you, together we changed thousands of lives.



On November 30th, GlobalGiving will have its annual Giving Tuesday Campaign. Same as last year, GlobalGiving will provide a one million US Dollars incentive fund to all eligible NPOs.

GlobalGiving’s 2021 campaign will last 24 hours, from 00:00:00 EST to 23:59:59 EST on November 30, 2021.

Each participant’s portion of the Incentive Fund is determined as follows: [Total Eligible Project Donations] ÷ [Total Donations To All Projects in the campaign] * [$1,000,000 USD] ≈ Your portion of the Incentive Fund

Donations up to $2,500 USD per unique donor per organization will be eligible to receive Incentive Funds.

Meta is also having $8 million matching fund.

First: Matching 100% of the first $2M

For the first $2million, Meta will match 100% of donations made to qualifying fundraisers. For example, if you donate $10, Meta will also donate $10.

Second: Matching 10% after

For the remaining $6M, Meta match 10% of donations made to qualifying fundraisers. For example, if you donate $10, Meta will donate $1.

Understand match caps
Meta match donations to qualifying nonprofits up to:

$100,000 USD total donations matched per nonprofit

$20,000 USD in qualifying donations per donor
When matching will start

Matching begins on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 8am Eastern Time. Meta continue matching qualifying donations to nonprofits until the $8M match runs out.

Hope to see you on Giving Tuesday on GlobalGiving and Meta to help SOAR to earn some incentive fund! Your kind efforts could make double/triple or even more impact this Novermber 30th!

Wish everyone a very happy holiday season of 2021!

Take care and stay safe in the pandemic.



Warmest wishes,

Dawn Luo

Fundraising Committee Chair

SOAR FOUNDATION

07/11/2021

SOAR - You Are My Flashlight
By Original stories from Lynn, rewritten by Dawn - SOAR Student and Volunteer

Life before meeting SOAR:
My name is Lynn, I was born in a small rural village called Dongchengzhai in Henan Province. As you might heard about Henan, it’s one of the poorest provinces in China. I was the 2nd child of the family. My older brother couldn’t afford college education so he became a peasant. This has been his largest regret in life. I was worried someday I would have to give up school too in order to support my younger brother. Our family’s debts amount were even higher after my mother’s surgery. My grandma has been handicapped for years. Thus, my father couldn’t leave our village to join the migrant workers in cities for higher salary, but stayed in the village planting our tiny humble land of crops and took care of the entire family.
Because of the heavy family financial burden, I only spent $0.5 dollars per day for food at school. I look very skinny and lack of nutrition. Other students often laughed at me for being the “skeleton” of our school. Before meeting SOAR, I was quite confused and felt lost in life. I wanted to attend college, but that’s like a dream far far away from the crucial reality. I was worried and had nightmares that I had to drop out of high school and make a living for the family. Everyday I woke up like a zombie, walking without any directions. I found no meaning for life at all. Luckily enough, because I studied very hard and received high GPAs, SOAR scholarship nominator found me and encouraged me to apply for SOAR scholarships.
Life with SOAR:
With SOAR Scholarships, I no longer starve myself on a daily basis nor worry about no food for dinner while having lunch. With SOAR Scholarships, I know I won’t drop out of school and I will go to college. Not only did SOAR provide financial support for my education, SOAR also provides mentorship. I was self-abased and had no confidence on anything. After joining the SOAR family, I learned there are many other poor students just like me. I no longer felt lonely. SOAR volunteers and donors devoted their time and money helping thousands of poor students in rural China. I have decided for my rest of my life, I will give back to the society and donate to SOAR once I start making money. I will help other poor students just like SOAR helped me.

SOAR - like my flashlight that lightened up my way from the darkest cave hole. Simple words can’t express how grateful I am.

Warmest regards, especially during the global pandemic!
Lynn

Editor’s note:
Lynn is currently waiting for her college entrance exam result. If she applies and qualified, she will get SOAR College Scholarship. Some SOAR students had give up college scholarship application as they wanted to leave the limited fund for other younger students who need scholarships more to finish high school.

Latest GlobalGiving Bonus Matching Event - Wednesday July 14th 6am. Pacific Time. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/soar-foundation-fund-scholarships-in-rural-china/
More details and news are coming, stay tuned and set up alarm clock ^-^

01/26/2021

Happy 25th Birthday SOAR!

By Written by Moon, translated and edited by Dawn - SOAR Alumna and Volunteer

Attending SOAR’s 25th Anniversary Zoom Event on the weekend, I recalled that I was fortunate enough to be the first group of award-winning students who received SOAR Scholarships in 1996. From then on, I was like a little fish that picked up by SOAR Foundation to get the opportunity to grow up freely in the ocean, not in a dried small creek dying anymore. SOAR mentor Ms. W.’s meticulous care and encouragement guided me through my school years.

Born in a little village in Northern part of Jiangsu province (which is famous for its destitution), at the age of 12, I was still very ignorant, didn’t even know how to write a self-introduction essay. Now I have grown up and I am self-sufficient. I have not only fulfilled my dream to earn university diploma, I have entered the headquarter of a state-owned enterprise as I wish, and I also bought an apartment in Beijing, the capital city, using the money I earned on my own. Now as a parent, raising children, I can contribute to the society and others as much as I can. On this road, SOAR is like a lighthouse. For 25 years, SOAR Foundation has been illuminating my way, warming me, guiding me, rewriting my destiny, washing my soul, and encouraging me to move forward when I encounter difficulties. The kindness, selflessness, and great love spirit of SOAR volunteers have been integrated into my life. At the Zoom online gathering, I saw many volunteers who are in their 80s and 90s with all grey hairs and wrinkles. They are still shining and enthusiastic about the education of poor students in rural China and devoted all their lives. The true portrayal of the poem "the silk worm worked so hard to produce silk until last breath, the candle becomes ashes until the last tear dropped".

I wish SOAR a very happy 25th birthday, and wish that SOAR would be forever young, energetic and everlasting. I will live up to the spirit of SOAR and spread the love of SOAR. No matter in which industry and position, I will do my best to give back to the society and help others like me in 1996.

Stay healthy and safe in the pandemic!

Have a Bright New Year of 2021!

Moon

SOAR Alumna, Class of 1999