TAMPA -- Every little bit helps.

That's the philosophy driving Amscot Financial's annual "Just a Dollar" campaign to benefit the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations. This year's drive has raised more than $116,000. That means $31,000 for the Hillsborough Education Foundation; nearly $14,000 for Pinellas; $5,586 for Pasco; and $1,521 for Hernando.

The money was donated $1 at a time by Amscot customers, with a $10,000 match from the Tampa-based company. And such money is increasingly going toward students facing economic problems, said Mary Chance, executive director of the consortium, in a statement.

“In such tight economic times, we’re seeing many of our local education foundations focus on some of the basic needs of our students,” she said. “Many times, when a family is facing an economic crisis, the first people who are going to notice is a teacher with a student in their classroom. "

More from the press release:

This is the campaign’s fifth year. The five-year total, including Amscot’s matches, amounts to more than $395,000 contributed to local education foundations...

“On behalf of our member education foundations, I offer my thanks to Amscot Financial and to every customer who contributed a dollar,” Chance said. “This goes to show that when a lot of people pitch in just a little, we can accomplish great things.”

Ian MacKechnie, founder and CEO of Amscot, said: “We are extremely pleased with hard work by our associates and by the response by our customers. We believe it reflects the importance of education in their lives. They know how vital education is and they’ve chosen this gesture to help strengthen education in their local community.”

Founded in 1989, Amscot Financial employs more than 2,000 associates who work at the company’s 174 retail branches and at the company’s corporate headquarters in Tampa. The company currently operates retail locations in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, Manatee, Sarasota, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Volusia and Brevard counties.