Grantoo is one of many sites that is going to be making revenue off the ludicrously popular Facebook games. However they have an interesting model, they will be offering gaming for relief on your college debts. Grantoo is actually exclusively for college students. If you are currently paying off student loan debts, you can also use helpful resources online like payoff calculators to work out what you have left to pay.
The Grantoo platform
Grantoo has a site at Grantoo.org. Much like the early editions of Facebook you have to own a valid college e-mail in order to participate. Once you sign in, you can start participating in the games for small amounts of money.
Grantoo Tournaments
They are also working with sponsors such as Grooveshark to sponsor tournaments. These have prizes from $2,00 to $500 USD. You can actually earn some significant amounts of money with this.
Schools that are participating in the Grantoo program
Southeast
- American University
- Duke University
- Elon University
- Florida International University
- Florida State University (Talahassee)
- North Georgia College and State University
- University of Central Florida
- University of Florida
- University of Miami
- University of South Florida
South
- University of Texas (Austin)
- Texas School of Agriculture & Mining
Northeast
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Columbia University
- Pennsylvania State University (College Park)
- SUNY Binghamton
- University of Connecticut
- University of Pennsylvania
- Yale University
West
- Arizona State University
- California Polytechnic State University
- California State University Long Beach
- San Diego State University
- San Francisco State University
- San Jose State University
- Stanford University
- University of Arizona
- University of California Berkeley
- University of California Davis
- University of California Irvine
- University of California Los Angeles
- University of California San Diego
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of San Francisco
- University of Southern California
Midwest
- Central Michigan University
- Michigan State University
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of Missouri (Columbia)
The problem with the current Grantoo model
The current problem is that it does not cover enough schools. Winners of tournaments are supposed to donate 10%. The money is going to people who really do not need it. College students currently dealing with the debt are ineligible for this as well. They are the ones who need it most. So while this is a good start and something interesting, we hope to see it get better than it is now.
In response to problems: Actually, yesterday Grantoo opened to all colleges and universities across the country yesterday. Grantoo was open to 40 pilot schools to see how the idea took on those campuses. Now, anyone with a valid .edu address can sign up on Grantoo.org
You also mention that “college students currently dealing with the debt are ineligible for this as well”. Grantoo is for college students, so all current college students (whether dealing with debt or not) are eligible to win college grants.
I am also a little unclear on how “the money is going to people who really do not need it”. What people are you referring to here? Grantoo’s sponsors are giving money to charities and college students who are dealing with steep increasing costs of tuition. Grantoo was created to help those in need, so I am curious as to how either of these groups “really do not need it”.
I am available to speak at any time to clarify, and thank you for the article!
Sally
If it is open to everyone, you should make that a little clearer on the site. You have a list of colleges that are handling it.
Perhaps I was a bit unclear, but, and correct me if I’m wrong, the money is not available to former college students struggling with debt. It is going to kids who do not seem to have a lot of money problems, since they giving some away. I know a great number of people who have always paid off the full amount of their debt and are still struggling with debt. These are the people who really need it, and they can’t get into it. I myself had to pay off my debt after graduating, but to be fair the site wasn’t around back then. I had a full scholarship but had to take loans for expenses.
If you have a program for these people and I am mistaken, please inform me. I would be overjoyed to hear about it and write about the program in another article. Otherwise this is a major problem with your site, even if you do not see it that way.
Thanks for the clarification. You caught us in a bit of a transition period, and the “eligible” schools list is being taken down on the homepage.
As for the graduates, we are going to be open to post-grads within the year. We also plan to open up to high school students and family members of college students. We want to help as many people as possible!
Grantoo launched in March 2012, and decided to start with one group (college students) to build up our user base. We most definitely understand the urgency of debt for post grads and they will be able to win grants soon.
Well, that’s excellent. We will be happy to write about that later on. That was honestly the only major problem we had with the site. I’m sure we will catch your press release when it comes out.