History

In November 2004, founder and executive director Dagmar Serota was at home with her four year old son watching a television show where school children talked about being homeless. Her son wondered aloud if he could help. The program mentioned a New York City-based non-profit, called Common Cents New York, that empowered children to make grants to local community organizations. Dagmar contacted them the next day about bringing a program to Oakland, but they were unable to expand at that time. However, Dagmar was so inspired by the show and her son’s reaction to it that she decided to create her own service-learning program to engage local school children in addressing issues within their community.

By the end of August 2005, Good Cents for Oakland was incorporated, declared a tax-exempt 501(c)3 and had finished its inaugural program at Duck’s Nest Preschool in Oakland. By fall, Good Cents was piloting its elementary school program, the Penny Roundup Program, in the fifth grade at Oakland’s Emerson Elementary School. In spring 2006, two more elementary schools, Hillcrest and Joaquin Miller, participated in the Penny Roundup Program.

What began with just 100 students at one preschool has now expanded to over 2,000 students at 7 elementary schools and 3 pre-k programs – with those numbers growing each year. Last year, Good Cents for Oakland launched an annual City-wide Service Day Program to give families with elementary school-age children an opportunity to volunteer together to help their community.

The program has also added new forces to ensure its continued growth and development, including new board members, staff and a cadre of volunteers to help design, coordinate and implement the program. In Fall 2008, Good Cents for Oakland formed an Educational Advisory Committee (EAC) of teachers and school administrators to help guide future program development. Good Cents for Oakland has been fortunate to build meaningful community partnerships with the University of California’s Haas School of Business Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH) program, BUILD, Umoja Village afterschool program (at Emerson Elementary School), Ujima Foundation afterschool
program (at Lakeview Elementary School), and Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation.

Good Cents for Oakland is proud to have received recognition for its work. The organization received the Alameda County Community Food Bank's "Hope not Hunger" award in September 2007, and our executive Director, Dagmar Serota was awarded the AT&T/ENERGY 92.7 "Community Spotlight" award in May 2008. In October 2008, Dagmar Serota was awarded the prestigious Jefferson Award
for Public Service.

Jefferson Award video

Our programs have appeared in print and broadcast media, including Bay Area Parent East Bay Edition (8/05 and 9/07), Oakland Magazine (12/06), the SF Chronicle (10/08), the Montclarion (multiple) and KPIX Channel 5 (12/06 and 10/08).