Where Your Money Goes. And Where It Doesn't.
This is the question every smart donor asks. It deserves a straight answer.
Where it goes: Tools. Professional-grade, trade-specific equipment purchased directly for Virginia CTE graduates who earned their certifications but can't afford the tools their first employers require. Our Apprentice Tool Grant covers up to $1,950 per graduate — built as a trade-specific shopping cart, no cash changing hands.
Where it doesn't go: Salaries. There are none. VBCTF is entirely volunteer-run. Not lean-staffed. Not efficiently-staffed. Volunteer-run. No one receives a paycheck.
Events. No golf tournaments. No galas. No rubber-chicken dinners. These things exist to fund organizations that need them. We built ours differently.
Overhead bloat. We keep operational costs as low as possible. There are some — filing fees, web hosting, printing. We won't tell you those don't exist, because they do. What we will tell you is that we treat every dollar with the respect it deserves, because someone earned it.
How you know: Every Apprentice Tool Grant is in-kind. We buy the tools directly. There's a receipt, a trade, a graduate, a first day. You're not funding a concept — you're funding something you can picture in someone's hands.
Donations fund tools, not overhead. No golf. No galas. No excuses.
They earned the skills. We provide the tools.
