826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in San Francisco that Eggers founded with teacher Nínive Clements Calegari, grants four scholarships per year to local students,[2] but each year, "the other 100 applicants would go wanting," Eggers said in a press release about ScholarMatch.
Such celebrities as novelist Ayelet Waldman[6] and actor John Krasinski[7] have donated to scholars, as have Microsoft and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.
Scholars submit profiles that include information such as high school extracurricular activities, grade-point average, and the college they plan to attend.
[10] At the drop-in center, scholars can use one of the computers to submit a profile, review their financial aid package, or ask questions about college.
Just as 826 Valencia had to negotiate zoning codes [11] during its inception, ScholarMatch needed to be a retail space in order to operate out of their building; thus, college guide books, test-preparation manuals and other educational resources are for sale.