Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the list below for answers to some of the most common questions we've received about Students Rebuild and our Challenges. Do you have a question that's not on the list? Email us at info@studentsrebuild.org!

About students rebuild

Students Rebuild, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, is a no obligation, ready-made adventure in global learning that asks students to put their creativity and compassion to work in support of other young people in need. Learn about Students Rebuild on our About page.

You can contact the Students Rebuild team via email at info@studentsrebuild.org or social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

You can sign up for our monthly newsletter by opting-in when you register for the active Challenge.

The Students Rebuild website is optimized for the two latest versions of each of the following browsers: Chrome (OS X/Windows/iOS/Android), Safari (OS X/iOS), Firefox (OS X/Windows), Edge (Windows/Windows Phone), and Android native browser. We, unfortunately, do not support Internet Explorer.

Challenges

The Welcoming Refugees Project kicked off on September 13, 2022. Learn more about the Welcoming Refugees Project here.

The way it works is simple: We issue an annual challenge that invites students to respond to a specific problem affecting young people somewhere in the world. Teachers and students explore the issue in class and, in the process, connect with students around the globe. Then students create art based on what they learn and send it to us. For every piece of art they submit, we make a financial donation to a respected community-based organization serving youth. Since 2010, more than one million participants in 83 countries have created over five million works of art and raised more than $7 million to benefit tens of thousands of young people around the world.

For every artwork that was created before June 9, 2023, the Bezos Family Foundation made a donation—up to $1.6 million—to organizations supporting refugees. Register to participate here.

Students Rebuild is a program of the Bezos Family Foundation. Our Challenges work by asking young people to learn, connect, and take action on critical global issues. Once they understand the Challenge topic, we ask youth to create symbolic objects which the Foundation matches with funding for a good cause.

Not every young person has the means or opportunity to raise funds, so we ask them to show they care by creating symbols that express their care and concern. This approach allows young people of all backgrounds and in almost any country to take action on critical global issues.

At Students Rebuild, we believe in the Carl Wilkens quote, "When you make something with your hands, it changes the way you feel, which changes the way you think, which changes the way you act."

We're hopeful that as Challenge participants work on the items they’ll send in, they think about the Challenge topic and the beneficiaries they're helping. We want to give all young people a way to show they care, to feel empathy, and take action—and we'll handle the funding!

Our unique model allows young people from all walks of life to learn about and support global issues, and helps to build a culture of giving and empathy in younger generations.

By global, we mean that we select issues that we believe impact young people everywhere—in the United States and all around the world. While historically a large portion of our funding has gone to international organizations, in recent years we’ve begun funding community-based organizations that work in the United States as well.

No! Numerous Challenge teams participate in a classroom or library, but many of our teams are groups such as service clubs (e.g. Key Clubs, 4-H, Girl Guides), art clubs, or diversity clubs who meet during or after school to participate in the Challenge. Individuals participate alone, museums and community groups start teams, homeschooling parents and their children participate, and we even have teams comprised of Big Sisters and Big Brothers working with their “Littles.” Faith groups gather in houses of worship to participate, and often friends with no affiliation to any group gather and participate.

So it’s completely up to you how you’d like to participate in the Challenge—what’s important is that young people learn about critical global issues, build empathy, and take action by creating the Challenge “call-to-action” item. With the help of matching funds, all of those individual efforts all over the world come together to make a real difference in the lives of others!

Unfortunately, we cannot accept or match art with funding unless it’s handmade. We require that students work with their hands on the “call-to-action” item because we wholeheartedly believe in the Carl Wilkens quote, “When you make something with your hands, it changes the way you feel, which changes the way you think, which changes the way you act.” We're hopeful that as Challenge participants work on their art they’ll be prompted to reflect on the current issue.

Physical artwork can be mailed to us at:

Students Rebuild 2400 1st Ave. S. #336 Seattle, WA 98134

Once we receive your artwork, we’ll ensure each piece is counted and matched with funding to support respected organizations serving youth in the current issue area. Learn more about the programs our active Challenge is supporting on our Partners page.

When the Challenge ends, Students Rebuild will work with an artist, organization, and/or venue to host a large public exhibit or event that showcases submitted student artwork and further promotes awareness of the Challenge topic. While we try our best to include at least one piece of art from each team that mails in a package, we receive a large volume of artwork and cannot guarantee a piece from every team will end up in the final Challenge culmination. To see some of the past Challenge culminations, check out our Art Book!

There's no minimum or maximum to the number of people you can have on a Challenge team. It's common to be a team of one; we've also seen teams of hundreds of people! Just make sure you register for the Challenge here.

Yes! Please register for the active Challenge even if you've taken one before. This helps us accurately track the number of items made and people involved with each Challenge.

No. Currently, we can only associate one team per email address. In order to have multiple teams, you will need to register each team with a different email address.

Submitting your art is required to ensure your contribution results in a financial donation. It’s simple and your art can be submitted two ways: by mail or digital photo submission. Whichever you choose, submission always starts online at www.studentsrebuild.org/submit.

We anticipate many of these recipes will be created in a flat, paper-based format easy for shipping, and encourage you to mail your projects to us in Seattle, WA. If mailing is prohibitive for you, or you prefer to submit digitally, please note that our online system only accepts PNG or JPG files that are less than 10MB each. In addition, you will be limited to uploading 12 representative photos of your art with each submission instance.

Before getting started with the submission process, here are few other important things to note:

You’ll need access to the email address you used for registration to verify your email before completing the submission process.
Know how many people contributed to your teams art making. This could be one person or thousands!
Know how many individual pieces of art were made. You will enter this number and our system will calculate how much of a donation will be made on your team’s behalf.
Know if you’d like to submit digitally by uploading photos or by mailing us a package of your art. Either option is great, however, for the Changemaker Challenge we are also encouraging students to give their artful award to someone if possible.
If choosing digital, you have to have at least 1 and a maximum of 12 photos of your art ready to upload in order to complete submission. Please note, we cannot accept photos with recognizable faces.
You can submit art multiple times throughout the Challenge. If your team creates more awards—great! Come back to the submission process and add any new numbers.
If submitting multiple times, all your numbers will be cumulative. If you’re returning, only add the numbers of NEW art items and ADDITIONAL participants that may not have already been counted. For example, if the same group of students makes 15 additional awards, on the submission form you would enter # of art pieces: 15 and # of participants: 0.

Here are a few specific things to note about mailing in your art:

After entering your numbers online, you’ll be able to select “Mail Art.”
This will generate a mailing slip that will provide both the mailing address and details of your submission. Unable to print right now? Write down the provided details on a slip of paper and include it in your package. This enables us to easily identify your package and let you know when we receive it!
Your numbers will be counted as soon as you hit “complete submission” online, not when we receive your package. This means your dashboard display will immediately reflect your impact.
When we receive your package, we’ll send you a notification email within four weeks.
We try our best to include at least one piece of art from each physical package received in our final culmination.

Here are a few specific things to note about uploading your art:

After entering your numbers online, you’ll be able to select “Upload Art.”
You don’t need to take a photo of each piece of art. You can submit group shots of art, create an art display, or choose a representation of your Team’s artwork.
You can upload only 12 photos with each submission instance. If you have more images, you are welcome to upload the rest to your personal gallery—a feature of your Dashboard.
We cannot accept photos with recognizable faces. If these are submitted, we’ll need to reject the photo but your submission will still count. Tip: Art held in front of faces is a great blocker!
Please make sure images are in PNG or JPG format and are less than 10MB each. Uploading may take up to 3 minutes so please be patient. Hitting “Upload and Submit” multiple times may cause duplicate submissions.

We don’t want any team to avoid participating in Students Rebuild Challenges due to the costs of shipping. If financial constraints and/or mailing costs are preventing you from sending in your art, please select to submit them digitally!

We'd love to hear from you! Please submit suggestions for Students Rebuild Challenges by emailing us at info@studentsrebuild.org.

Try checking your junk/spam as a first step. As a second step, confirm Students Rebuild is on your safe sender list, or check with your organization’s IT department to make sure you can receive our emails.

Active Challenge

The Welcoming Refugees Project launched on September 13, 2022 and ends on June 20, 2023. Teams can register and submit art at anytime in that period.

For the 2023 Welcoming Refugees Project, we've collaborated with five organizations with a proven track record of supporting refugees. Learn more about each partner on the Challenge Partner page.

The funding teams generate through the Welcoming Refugees Project will support five organizations and projects around the world that are supporting refugees.

You can learn more about each specific project to be funded on our Partner page.

For this year’s Welcoming Refugees Project, we’re asking students to channel their creativity to welcome people displaced by war and other crises by creating postcards that will be sent to young refugees around the world. We encourage kids to write their own welcome message on the back.

Yes! We encourage students to keep their art and submit it online. Sharing a photo is enough to mobilize a donation on the students’ behalf!

Yes! You can make as many postcards as you’d like! While many of our teams set stretch goals for the number of pieces of art they produce, we ask that they are intentional and thoughtful in the process of crafting each one.

Still have a question? Email us!

FAQ