Empowering Education: Clare Richards on Revolutionizing School Supplies and Classroom Success with Claire Richards

Welcome back, No Problem Parents. In today's Tech and Teaching episode, we welcome Claire Richards, the co-founder and CEO of Impax, a startup that's dedicated to easing the burden on parents and educators in accessing critical school supplies. Impax is revolutionizing the school supply shopping experience, making it not only easy and affordable for parents, but also providing an option to support students in need through donations.

Listen in and learn more about the impact of impacts on the back-to-school journey and how impacts supports the entire school ecosystem, promoting successful classrooms by supporting the student and the teacher. Welcome to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. From toddler tantrums to teenage eye rolls, this podcast is your go-to for updated and old school tips and tools that are going to help you become the confident leader your kids crave you to be. I'm your host, Jackie Finneman, a 30-year counselor turned parenting coach, and I've got a lot to share, including hundreds of resources that you have access to right from your home and strategies that are going to boost your confidence and energize you. We're going to turn your parenting problems into no problem, one episode at a time.

Claire Richards is the co-founder and CEO of Impacts, which supports parents and educators in accessing critical school supplies. Claire is a creative by trade with a strong love for building vibrancy through action and storytelling. She's known for her ability to kickstart initiatives, engage emerging leaders, and lead passionate teams to accomplish ambitious goals. Her work as a community volunteer and advocate has gained her recognition as a St. Cloud, Minnesota 5 Under 40 Award winner, a 2022 Top Outstanding Young Minnesotan, and the 2023 JCI 10 Outstanding Young Americans Award. Claire volunteers her time on various boards, including Greater St. Cloud Development Center, Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the University of Minnesota Center for Integrative Leadership, and Granite Table. Prior to starting Impacts,

Claire spent a decade in the marketing and advertising field, and when she isn't volunteering or working, she can be found binging a good podcast or playing her ukulele. Claire, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thanks for being here. Oh, I'm just so grateful to be here. Like you said, I enjoy binging podcasts and I have enjoyed binging your podcast indeed. So just really pleased to be here. When I first met you, I have to think it was way back last year, like at the She Leads pitch event, you were one of the panel speakers and I was just so impressed with all that you were doing and intended to reach out and get in touch with you. But you know how that goes with us people that love networking, like it's just the next person comes the next person and took us a while to actually make a coffee date. I was so excited to learn about impacts and all that you're doing. So let's, you know, just start there. Founding a startup like impacts obviously requires a big vision and a lot of determination. So could you just share the story behind the inception of Impacts and what motivated you? Yeah, absolutely. So we were volunteering through Rotaract for back-to-school supply drives a couple years in a row, and this was back in the 2016-2017 time frame. And we were doing these back-to-school supply drives. We're meeting teachers, principals, and other community members trying to impact this level of work and make sure

that students have the supplies they need to kick off the school year. And it was a really interesting experience because, you know, I had a great childhood and every, every childhood has pros and cons, right? Everybody has their own lived experience. But for me, we never had a lack of critical supplies or, you know, food or clothing. We always had what we needed and going through this experience, my eyes were just opened to the immense need in our local community, but I found out truly across the country for things like critical supplies. You think of it as baseline necessities, but for a lot of families, it is totally out of reach. So one of our principals mentioned that over 90% of her students came without even a pencil. This is nuts. Imagine you're a young learner and you're trying to grasp the fundamentals and you don't even have the baseline tools to do so. And so what happens is oftentimes these classrooms are under-resourced and the teachers end up spending money on the classrooms because there's not enough funding through the school to support these classrooms. So you have teachers who are often underpaid themselves, investing on average between $750 and $1,000 out of pocket each year on classroom supplies, which just seems so bananas to put the onus on teachers.

So we had that really critical experience. And then also my husband and I, when we were in college, we used to work for OfficeMax. So we saw the other side of this. Parents during the back to school season getting their shopping done. And let me tell you, you've never seen a parent as mad and frustrated and irritated as a parent to find all of these really specific requirements with two or three kids in tow. So we saw really mad parents and we saw very frustrated teachers and school administrators. And we thought to ourselves, gosh, this is like a two-sided challenge and there's got to be something here, some sort of a nonprofit idea. Actually, it started out as a nonprofit concept. And the more we dug in and the more we uncovered about this particular area of challenge,

we realized, no, I think this is actually a business, a business in which we can serve parents on a level of convenience while also having an impact on classrooms through social impact means. So we consider ourselves to be a social impact-led organization, which just means within every community we serve, our number one goal is to have a positive impact on those children and those classrooms. So great. It's so cool. You're supporting parents, You're supporting educators and getting the critical school supplies.

Nothing frilly here, which I also love that. And I want to talk about that a little bit as well. So let's just break it down for people who don't know how it works. Absolutely.

So Impact specializes in creating customized, free packaged school supply kits. So these kits are tailored to every school we work with, every grade within that school. They're teacher approved. They contain everything a child needs for the upcoming year.

and we work directly with the schools to create a specific portal page just for that school. And so how it works is we'll sign up a school and the school doesn't have to pay anything for this service. We'll sign up a school, we'll create their portal page. The school will send this portal page to parents May, June, July, and parents have the opportunity to hop on.

And in about 30 seconds, they can order their child's kit. It's affordable, right? Our average kit comes at less than half the national average spent on school supplies. So it's affordable.

It takes about 30 seconds, which of course parents love. And at checkout, parents have the opportunity to donate. And if they do, we match a portion. So right now we match the first $5 given by each parent in the donation process.

And so what we're trying to do is incentivize parents to give and create these ecosystems of giving. It's not just skim off the top. We donate X percent of our profits. It's a model that's really meant to incite and excite these parent communities to be involved in the good of their child's classroom.

As a parent with a grown child now, I was that person in the school supply store walking around going, are you kidding me? They need a, what he needs a, what kind of dry erase marker. And then does he need it with the eraser thing or, Oh no, this year he doesn't need the eraser thing. They must have an abundance of those at school. And then this certain notepad and hen, there's just like all these different things that it was hard to find him. And then for one child, sometimes I would leave and it was like 75 to a hundred bucks. And I'm thinking what? And then at the end of the year, it would be frustrating when he would come back with some of those supplies that he didn't even use.

It's not fit to the student. It's not right size. So we do see a lot of waste. And one of our goals with schools is to narrow the scope of that list to make sure we're asking parents to buy only what they truly need or what their child needs.

But you touch on a great point. The shopping experience can be a frustrating one. I think many parents have had moments of joy in back to school shopping. So there's a lot of tradition around that, but it tends to be around the things that are fun to buy, like clothes and shoes and the backpack. What's not as fun is like finding a very specific quad ruled yellow notebook. You know, this is the part that's so frustrating because as parents, You end up shopping at multiple stores trying to find this dang notebook that you know the teacher is asking for.

And so we take care of the parts of back-to-school shopping that are not very fun. The other thing I always like to point out, especially for the parents that do have a lot of tradition and joy built around the back-to-school shopping, some of the fun is when you're letting your kids pick out the Superman notebook, the sparkly unicorn folder. But the problem is the teachers really, really do not want you to bring those materials into the classroom.

Right. Because we see a lot of bullying happen as a result. On the first day of class, it's really clear the haves and the have-nots, the students that have access to this level of luxury and resources versus the students that can barely afford a pencil, right? And so how do you level out the playing field?

because at the end of the day, the teacher sets the tone for what's truly needed in the classroom and everything else is just in excess. I love that you're even acknowledging that and that I think it would be great to not even have to deal with the school supply issue and like, yeah, kids want to bring something fun in. That's one thing, but to have that level playing field, it just causes unnecessary problems. And here at No Problem Parenting, we're all about giving problems only as much attention as they deserve. And then we keep removing. So let's not start the year off with problems right away. How are you reaching the schools and how are you getting into the schools and our schools like, oh, this is great. Or this seems more of a hassle. I mean, it's not costing them anything. So I would think they'd really embrace it. We reach out to schools in a variety of ways. For sure. Referrals are the most powerful way, whether it be a parent that really wants to see this happen, a PTO member, another teacher, other schools that work with us that refer us to their school connections, for sure the most impactful way to get in front of schools. But typically how this works is a school administrator, maybe the school principal, there's a number of roles that might work with us, but they have to green light this program. But you're right,

It requires very little. So the program is free for schools to run and they have a potential fundraiser on their hands, right? We've had schools raise thousands of dollars through this program. And so it can really have an impact. Sometimes we work directly with PTOs or PTAs, the parent teacher organizations.

The number one objection we get is this perception that it's going to take a lot of time to run this program. But in all reality, we've done time studies across our school partners, and typically it requires the attention of one point of contact in a school. And they spend less than three hours in total across the entire program. Because we do all of the work.

We set up the landing page. We develop marketing materials. So that point of contact just has to copy paste things. And maybe they change a few words, but it's super seamless, super easy.

We deliver all of the supplies right to the school. It's color coded by grade. There's clear labels for each of the students. We're able to customize these kits.

So say your school requires each item to be labeled. will include a sheet of labels in each kit, right? We really work with the schools to find something that is tailored to them. And we wanna make this experience a positive one because at the end of the day, yes, the fundraising is a motivator, but I think for a lot of schools, they genuinely want to offer their parents options.

And this is just an option. We have very few schools that mandate this. This is just another option. Parents can still shop in store. They can still spend money on Amazon, but this just gives them another way to navigate back-to-school shopping.

So in addition to the back-to-school supply kits, we often work with schools to do bulk supplies. So when you talk about schools that aim to level the playing field, what we're seeing is an increasing trend where schools will buy 100% of the supplies for their student base. And they think about it on a classroom level. How do you supply a classroom? Because we talk about waste. Instead of having each child use an individual bottle of glue, maybe you just need a couple of gallon jugs and a couple of small applicators.

instead of having that mass waste, we can really consolidate. The school can save resources and help the environment through that. So we've seen a rise in schools that want to support the entire student body with supplies, and we're able to help them do that. So for those situations, is it pretty much instead of getting a kit, the parents would go in and just, it's almost like a donation?

If I've learned anything about the K-12, I would call it an industry. I don't know if they'd refer to themselves as an industry. But if I've learned anything about K-12, it is that there is not a single consistency across schools across this country. That makes sense.

Really. It doesn't make sense, but I mean, it makes sense that that's the reality. It's pretty wild. Every single school, even within the same district, has very, very unique and specific needs. So to your point, we have some schools that will try to recoup the cost through parent donations and we can help them do that. We'll set up a donation portal page and we'll give parents a way to give online versus writing the check, which is always a hassle, right?

Right. So some schools will try to recoup that cost via parent donations. Some PTOs will fundraise specifically to cover the supplies. Some schools have access to a funded budget specifically for this. And so it really depends on the school, but we have found ways to make this a feasible option.

And again, not all of our schools are not even close to all of our schools are doing this model, but a growing number are. And then also let's talk about what kind of supplies. So you're not going cheap on the actual supply itself. Oh, yeah.

I mean, we very intentionally work with name brand across all of our products because I think if we try to substitute Crayola, for example, we might have a revolt on our hands. There's a lot of loyalty to name brands, whether that be Crayola, Ticonderoga, Elmer's, Expo. And there's a reason for that. Those are quality products.

And so we always default to name brand products. Now, if we're working with a school that has a very tight budget, there are certainly ways we can cut. We can look at alternative options, especially for things like notebooks and folders that the quality maybe is not as important as for crayons and markers. we're able to really navigate that buying experience and try to find the balance of quality and affordability. Another way we have helped our schools in the past is just by helping them understand what it is they're actually asking for. So you mentioned how frustrating it is when your kids come back with a bunch of supplies at the end of the year, right? It's waste. It's unneeded. So how do we make sure the school supply lists are right sized to the needs of the classroom? We were working with one district and it was in one of the most impoverished areas of the state we were working within. A lot of poverty, a lot of need in that region. So we audited their list and provided a quote. And again, this is not the school paying for it.

were saying, this is how much it will cost your parents to buy this kit. And it was over a hundred dollars. Oh, wow. Which is a really big list. And we were, we were taken aback. We're like, this is a big list. Like, why, why is it so huge? Especially considering the, the, the poverty in the region. So they took one look at that quote and they're like, you guys are way too expensive.

And I was like, okay, hold on. Like, we don't have to work together, but you should know this is this is likely cheaper than what your parents will actually find and this was in a rural area so they were over 60 miles away from a walmart to target so it's even worse because anytime you buy on amazon for example you're way over spending and so once they understood this once they realized what they were truly asking of their parents they narrowed that list down to under $35 per student. So they cut it by over two thirds, which I think that really comes back to this concept of a social impact organization. It's not just through the donations we funnel to our partner schools. It's through being more conscientious of the things we're asking parents to cover. I can remember from, I would say probably middle and high school, the school supply list that was posted on the school's website wasn't even up to date or accurate anymore. So we were buying things they weren't even using anymore, which is so frustrating for the parent, right? But also the school, you feel for the teachers, because it's like,

there's so many things to get set up in an order. That's probably one of the last things that they're looking at. Absolutely. And I think what we've seen as a trend is once the teachers experience the program for the first time, they see the kids coming in with the right supplies that they've asked for, then the following years, the process gets so much smoother because they understand the vision, right? They go look at that portal page and they say, okay, I want to change out these products. I want to update it in this way, but they're more motivated to do so because the parents are motivated to make sure their child succeeds. And the teacher is also motivated by that, but they're motivated to not spend their own personal dollars on supplies to support their classroom in any way that we can get closer to that vision is a leap. It's a leap. Awesome.

For the listeners who are inspired by Impact's mission and who are like super curious about this, what are some tangible ways or some things that they can do to support and contribute to the initiative? I always say any sort of referral to your school is a helpful one. Some of these conversations take a while to come to fruition, but if you're a parent and you're like, man, this would be really nice. And, or maybe you're on the PTO and you're looking for a creative way to fundraise. I think this could be a great solution for you. And so any sort of referral to the school, to the principal, to the school admin is helpful to us. But I would also just encourage everybody beyond impact, beyond what we're doing as a company, I would encourage you to think about what it means to support your child's classroom because high tide raises all boats. You can't expect your child to have maximum access to success if other kids in that classroom are struggling. And so how do we come together as school communities to foster a really great learning environment for all of the students? It's not just about your child. It's about all of the children that surround your child. Your heart is so big and you're brilliant.

the fact that you and your husband came up with this great idea, supporting kids and parents, you know, parents are my jam, right? So making life easier for them. I'm all about that. So yeah, parents reach out, go to my impacts.com. Is that right? Yes. M Y I M P A C K S impacts.

Kind of an interesting story. So Brandon was the one that came up with impacts. So it's impact combined with backpacks. That was sort of the initial idea or, you know, these supplies come in packs. So I always clarify that because impacts is spelled with a K, not a T.

So think backpack impacts, even though you're not supplying backpacks, it's what it's all the things that would normally go in the backpack, right? Correct. Yep. So, all right. This is so, this is so incredible. It's so awesome. Are there other future initiatives or projects?

We will continue certainly to focus on the kits, the bulk supplies for schools. We're growing very rapidly. 2022, we were just in Minnesota. 23, we were across eight states.

And now in 2024, we're anticipating to be across 12 states. So we're growing very rapidly. But in addition to the school supply kits and the bulk supplies, we are looking at launching an experiential STEAM kit. So science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

And so this activity kit is meant to further deepen the curiosity and creativity of the students who are already serving with school supplies. And so we're just dipping our toe into this idea. And many parents have heard of alternatives like KiwiCo or Crunch Labs, right? There are companies on the market that currently do this, but we're taking a slightly different perspective or slightly different spin.

So I'm really excited to experiment in that area. Very cool. I'm excited to watch impacts and where things go for you all. Parents, again, go to myimpacts.com.

You can see how this works. You can check it out. You get to actually see what comes in a kit. There are videos on the website and you can learn more about them.

And then also there's a way for people to get in touch with you if they want more information or want you to present this to their school. Absolutely. I really appreciate you, Claire, and just thank you for being on the show. Thank you so much.

This has been just such a joy. Thank you for having me. All right, that's it for today's episode of the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Hey, thanks guys for tuning in.

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