CLEARWATER, Fla. — Did you get paid for your good grades as a kid?

You know—a quarter for an A, a dime for a B, maybe a nickel for a C or maybe nothing at all.

Some kids did. Some kids had and have the kind of family life that provided for such things.

Some kids didn’t, and don’t.

In a way, that’s why native Pinellas entrepreneur Monica Eaton-Cardone—who, along with her husband, founded the successful Clearwater digital fraud-protection company Chargebacks911—started Paid for Grades. It’s a program that rewards at-risk Pinellas County high school students with cash incentives for improving their academic performance.

The not-for-profit began in 2013 as a scholarship program, but offered an interesting wrinkle: The students that successfully completed the program could choose between a $1,000 scholarship, and $500 in cash. Eighty students enrolled in Paid for Grades that year; guessing that perhaps the idea of navigating the process of a scholarship might be intimidating to those most in need of age, the organization pivoted to a straight-up cash prize the following year.

Paid for Grades remains up and running during the pandemic—a time when more students than ever may be struggling due to distance learning, and need some extra motivation. This year, more than 500 students from across Pinellas County enrolled in the semester-long program for the 2020-21 school year, thanks to teachers and schools working with Paid for Grades to identify those with the need and potential. Generally, a student must be performing at least one grade level below their current status to qualify. 

Enrolled students are paired with a mentor. They must meet certain criteria to successfully complete the program, such as raising their performance one grade level (according to Florida Standards Assessment and English Language Arts testing), maintaining a satisfactory attendance record, and completing a series of supplemental online lessons designed to help give them some of the life and career skills they’ll need to succeed.

“There aren’t a lot of opportunities for kids who have struggled, but are working hard to turn their lives around,” says Scott Pinsker, a spokesperson for Chargebacks911. “It can be kind of a blind spot in academics.”

Pinsker says Eaton-Cardone and Paid for Grades don’t see the program as paying kids for doing something they should be doing for free. There are extenuating circumstances here; these are students who may have started off behind due to various environmental and economic factors, or who might be doomed to fall between society’s cracks because of those factors.

“We’re paying for performance,” he says. “In a lot of situations we’re these kids’ last chance, and if we don’t help them, who will? What will be the cost of teenage boys and girls losing hope and never being able successfully integrate into society?”

None of the money comes from public sources—the program is fully funded by Chargeback911, and has the blessing of Pinellas Education Foundation.

Paid for grades is a win for the mentors and schools involved, as well. Mentors are awarded $400 for each student they work with that successfully completes the program, and participating educational institutions receive a $100 Microsoft gift card for the same.

According to Pinsker, though, the main goal for Eaton-Cardone is to give these kids a chance to excel, and the skills they’ll need to get through high school, and their lives beyond.

“One of her favorite stories is about a kid she wanted to hire who told her he wasn’t good enough to work for her company,” he says. “Well, he went through the program, and when he was done she tried to hire him again, and he said that he was too good. She loved that.”