Tampa – (August 1, 2006) – Amscot Financial announces the launch of the inaugural “Just a Dollar” campaign, designed to raise funds for local education foundations in the 12 Central Florida counties where Amscot has branches.

Continuing through the month of August, Amscot financial service associates will ask every customer if they would like to voluntarily contribute a dollar to their local education foundation. Amscot will track each contribution by county and ensure that it is donated directly to the education foundation serving the county in which the branch is located. Amscot will match the contributions up to the first $10,000.

Funds raised will be used by local education foundations to support reading and scholarship programs, said Stacy Carlson, executive director of the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations.

“Education foundations in Florida are non-profit organizations that serve as a conduit for private sector investment in education. They focus their fund-raising efforts on programs that are not supported by tax dollars,” Carlson said.

“The ‘Just a Dollar’ program was Amscot’s idea,” Carlson said. “They came forward and proposed this campaign as a way of encouraging everyone to invest a little in education in their community. It’s an outstanding way to generate more investment in our local schools.”

Ian MacKechnie, founder and CEO of Amscot Financial, said: “We are huge believers in doing what we can to build up our community, and we think our customers want to do their part as well. If we can get a lot of people contributing just a dollar, it can have a huge impact on our schools.”

Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., Amscot Financial is a leading provider of income tax preparation and electronic filing services, refund anticipation loans, check cashing services, cash advance services, money transfer services and money orders through its wholly owned division, Amscot International Money Order Company.  Amscot Financial currently operates 111 tax preparation offices and 111 retail financial service centers throughout Florida and employs more than 1,500 people.  For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.amscotfinancial.com.