Savings social network sites try to encourage friends, family and businesses to contribute to a child's college education. These facilitator or "college registry" sites make it less awkward to ask for support. They also provide a benefit to the donor, such as updates on the child's academic progress. The donor can use their contributions to encourage the student to get good grades and succeed in school. They may also include a rebate component similar to those of the credit card loyalty programs.

These sites leverage several recent trends in higher education:

• College students create secure online "portfolios" of their work that can be viewed by friends and family.
• Organizations like The "I Have a Dream" Foundation (IHAD) allow businesses to 'adopt' a class of low income students and promise to sponsor their college education.
• Social networking sites that are popular among students like Facebook and MySpace.