Economic inclusivity.

We are committed to the principle that no student’s economic circumstances should exclude them from our programs. Since our inception, we have prioritized inclusion over profit, focusing on nurturing our students' potential rather than maximizing our financial gain.

We proudly give parents the option to pay less than the asking price, or even nothing, for our programs, and still have their children participate. Our hope is to instill a sense of belonging in our students while giving relief to those in our community facing economic challenges (such as those on parental leave and newcomers to Canada).

Over 12,500 registrants have used this option over the years, a number we believe will grow.

We acknowledge that no system is perfect. This policy has had an impact on our bottom line, and the increased use of this payment option (particularly since COVID lockdowns lifted) has meant our program operating costs have risen.

Despite this, we believe in this policy. It represents one of our core values, and has earned us some recognition in the press. It has also caught the attention of CIBC Private Wealth, who stepped up to support us in the spring of 2025.

✅ Support families that can’t afford to pay full price for our programs.

✅ Contributing more to our Tree Program by planting a tree with every registration.

✅ Providing a living wage for our passionate instructors and administrative team.

✅ Provide a more vibrant, diverse experience for our program’s students.

We want to keep this momentum of goodwill and generosity going. Our message to parents, whether they pay the full price, pay a portion, or pay nothing at all, is simply thank you—for believing in our team, our programs, and our kids!

Highlights.

As of 2026, students from 95% of our participant schools have utilized the option of paying less than the full price for our programs.

During the past three years alone, over 12,000 participants have paid less than our asking price, bringing program costs within their economic means. During that same timeframe over 2,200 participants have paid nothing at all—participants who most certainly would not have been able to take part in our programs otherwise.

In recent years the number of families requiring support has been sharply on the rise. Enrolments at a subsidized rate have climbed from 24% in 2022 to 36% in 2026.

What Else Has This Pay Policy Made Possible?

Subsidized In-Class Enrichment programs.

Unlike our clubs, our in-class programming is paid for out of school budgets. While this provides financial relief for individual participants, there are institutions whose budgets don’t allow for extracurricular programming.

To help students in these schools get their fair share of extra education, we’ve reduced our rates. To date, we have subsidized over $125,000 in programming in 47 different institutions, enabling more than 5,700 students to enjoy our programming.

In the past year alone we were able to subsidize over 16% of our programs fees, targeting schools that required discounts to run our programs. As a result, over 1,200 students were able to take part in some of our most popular programs, like chess, financial literacy and robotics.

You can pay more!

In 2023, we received feedback from parents wanting to help: is there an option to pay more?

In response, we introduced a “pay more” option* for registrants to pay above our typical asking price. To extend programming to as many families as possible, 100% of these funds are allocated to participants in schools where programs are in jeopardy of not running. To date, hundreds of children have been included in programs that would not have run otherwise as a result.

*Please note that tax receipts are not available for these “pay more” contributions. If you require tax receipts please contribute through Extra Ed’s own charitable entity, which does provide them. Visit our donate page to learn more about this fund.