Palo Alto High School will host an event to showcase The School Fund, a non-profit organization that funds needy children’s education in developing countries, during lunch on Tuesday in the English Resource Center.

Matt Severson, who graduated from Paly in 2007 and is currently a senior at Brown University in Providence, R.I., started The School Fund in 2008 after a trip to Tanzania. The goal of the foundation is to provide educational opportunities to students in developing nations by pairing them with funders located all around the world.

“I wanted to create a way for people around the world to learn about this issue, and to contribute in small, yet measurable ways to helping a student continue his or her education,” Severson said.

The goal of the foundation is to provide schooling opportunities to students in developing nations who are unable to afford school fees. For kids in Tanzania, the school fee averages to about $150 a year.

“The School Fund is all about providing access to education to students who are unable to afford their school fees,” Severson said. “We believe that funder should be able to see exactly who and what their money goes to an we also wanted students and funders to be able to communicate with one another.”

Severson will speak about his organization, which currently funds 63 students in third-world countries, as well as internship opportunities that come with opportunities to travel to Africa.

“I’m going to be talking about how The School Fund got started, why access to education in the developing world is an issue and what I decided to do, as a high school student, to begin to tackle this massive problem,” Severson said.

The School Fund works with non-governmental organizations to help fund students in the developing world.

“These NGOs put their students up on our homepage, and benefit from the transparency and communication of www.theschoolfund.org,” Severson said. In turn, The School Fund is able to reach a greater number of students.”

For more information, please contact junior Clara Chang, who is the president of The School Fund Club at Paly. Chang encourages students to ask their teachers if they will offer extra credit for attendance at the event, naming teachers such as David Camner, Eric Bloom and Mike McNulty who have pledged to do so.