Small-scale tournaments are hosted daily, and larger tournaments are hosted every Sunday.
Salt Lake Community College is currently ranked 151 out of all of the schools nationwide.
See Grantoo’s video.
Grantoo.org is a free online gaming platform that provides college students with a way to play online games to win educational grants and donations for charities.
“I don’t play a ton of video games, but it would be worth it to win some tuition money,” said SLCC student Nick Crawford. “And I’d be willing to spend some time gaming to help a cause.”
Grantoo tournaments are open to any student with an email address ending in .edu from any college in the United States. Players can receive educational grants by winning tournaments in a variety of games.
Grantoo also gives students the opportunity to contribute to charities. Before the game begins, participants pledge between ten percent and 100 percent of their winnings to a cause they care about.
Although the minimum donation is ten percent of winnings, students have opted to pledge an average of 35 percent of their winnings with some students donating 100 percent.
Grantoo is the brainchild of Dimitri Sillam. In 2007, Sillam was struggling to pay his own student loans, and he came up with an idea to help relieve other college students’ tuition difficulties.
Sillam later partnered with his best friend from high school, Mikhael Naayem, who brought the charity aspect into the mix. By March of 2012, Grantoo became reality.
Grantoo partners with colleges and businesses nationwide, such as the University of Southern California and Verizon Wireless, to sponsor the online gaming tournaments. This gives companies an opportunity to gain favor from the student demographic by increasing the visibility of the company’s donations.
There are seven different charitable causes to choose from when making a donation. These range from Pencils of Promise, an organization dedicated to building schools in developing countries, to Engineers Without Borders.
When a student wins, Grantoo sends a check for the pledged amount to the chosen charity. They will also send a check for the remainder of the winnings to the student’s college or university to go towards their tuition.
To participate in a Grantoo tournament, a student must submit their name, college or university and college email address, and then create a user name and password.
To find out when the next tournament will be held, users can view a countdown from the Grantoo.org sign-in home page.
