Crowdfunding for education is full steam ahead in 2025. The public recognizes the need to help out — or sometimes fully fund — classroom supplies and programs to make sure students benefit from a stellar education. No one will dispute that teaching is a hard job, made harder by limited funding for classroom necessities. Raising funds for schools exists to ease that burden for educators and give students what they need to succeed in any classroom across the US.
Wish lists, one-and-done campaigns, and even the old candy and wrapping paper sales are all used in crowdfunding today. But personalized educator profiles, rolling campaigns, and total transparency have an important place in today’s crowdfunding environment. Technology can be harnessed to move great crowdfunding ideas forward.
Crowdfunding has taken many forms over the years, but the concept of providing funds directly to educators is relatively new. This is where TeacherGiving comes in: crowdfunding to enrich students’ educational experience in underfunded classrooms.
All Crowdfunding Websites Are Not Created Equal
Crowdfunding for education is a growing sector, and there are a variety of platforms to choose from. Educators ultimately choose sites that make it easy to accept support from and communicate with their patrons. Getting students what they need is what really matters. But did you know that there are some issues with crowdfunding education as a whole? From high transaction fees to a lack of accountability, this sector has room for improvement. TeacherGiving is at the forefront of solving these challenges and making crowdfunding a valuable experience for educators and supporters alike.
Today, that looks like an overhaul of what we think of when we say crowdfunding. Tracking data, introducing spending guardrails, and a portable educator presence are just a few things that are moving crowdfunding into the future.
Transparency & Control
Educator Profiles
How much do we really know about our educators and their needs? Are we only providing incremental funds for specific requests, or do we have an idea of the long-term vision for the classroom?
For the latter, probably not, because the tools haven’t existed — until now.
Unlike some other crowdfunding sites, TeacherGiving gives educators their own profile page to talk about their classrooms, raise funds, and build an ongoing relationship with supporters. Educators can run campaigns from their pages, and it’s their page to take with them wherever their career path goes. TeacherGiving is focused on both the short- and long-term impact of helping to shape education today.
Transparency is Paramount
All of us have wondered how funds were applied at some point. Most crowdfunding options don’t provide tangible proof that your money helped to further the cause. This has to change in order for the public to remain open to crowdsourcing requests in education.
TeacherGiving operates with a philosophy of transparency. The service can track where funds go and what the educator spends money on. This allows supporters to develop continued trust with the educator and deepen the relationship, while showing how the classroom has benefited. TeacherGiving is also transparent with the money that is collected to operate, keeping both the educator and TeacherGiving accountable. TeacherGiving is the only platform that enables both inbound and outbound tracking via educator debit cards.
Unprecedented Control
General crowdsourced funding for a school might be doled out to educators at administrators’ discretion. Product sites that support “educator wishlists” are taking a pretty large percentage of each sale. A gap to fill is the spot where educators can solicit funds specifically for their classroom.
With TeacherGiving, educators control the use of the funds and where they spend the money. This allows them to acquire products and services at the best price and to spend money within the community they serve. TeacherGiving supporters can also reimburse educators for purchases, meaning educators can purchase items ahead of time and make it up on the back end.
Making Crowdfunding Happen
Always On
Patrons of education crowdfunding are used to specific asks for funds: new musical instruments, science equipment, or student experiences are common. But the day-to-day needs of a classroom need to be funded all year, and there’s currently no way to keep an open ticket on crowdfunding.
Rolling campaigns are another area where TeacherGiving is different. The established educator’s profile page is an ongoing presence and not specific to any one project or need. It’s dynamic, and allows educators to actively seek funds anytime and modify requests based on circumstances throughout the year.
Vanishing Funds Due to Fees
Many platforms are mainly catalogues to buy products for educators, so they’re taking a cut of the product cost. For traditional crowdfunded contributions, the platform takes 20% of the provided amount, meaning that educators have to raise an extra 20% to meet their goals.
TeacherGiving is purely for crowdfunding, and charges a flat fee per transaction vs. taking a large cut of the donation.
Let’s walk through that flat fee. TeacherGiving’s use of a single flat-rate approach instead of a percentage of funds raised is unique in this space. TeacherGiving does not profit from the generosity of supporters. The low flat fee is added to the transaction amount, akin to sales tax. The goal is to support classrooms with 100% of what is provided going to the needs of the educator.
No More Grant Chasing
Grant writing falls among the grading, planning, and general outside-of-classroom work. With no guaranteed return on this time investment, it’s hard for educators to add this to their already-significant list of tasks.
Now educators can say goodbye to the grant process. TeacherGiving is helping educators cover expenses that are not easily identified in a typical educational budget. This eliminates the need for educators to go through the grant process, which is long and does not guarantee qualification. TeacherGiving enables educators to target the most important things and allows supporters to choose what they want to help fund, whether it’s a cello or a class pet.
Deepening Community Relationships
Community relationships are key in crowdfunding, and too often, giving money feels like just another transaction for supporters. There’s a huge opportunity to engage supporters and deepen relationships for classroom patrons, and crowdfunding platforms need to enable that.
TeacherGiving helps educators cultivate long-term relationships with supporters, providing them years of support for their needs as an educator without taking money out of their own pockets. Teachers can change schools, classrooms, or grades, and take their TeacherGiving profile with them. TeacherGiving certifies educator employment with schools through a screening process, so supporters can be comfortable knowing their money is going to the right place.
The Dirt on the Data
Tracking Data
You might be wondering how education crowdfunding websites publicly track data. The short answer is: they don’t. Supporters are giving with blind faith that their money will be used correctly, often with no update on the outcome. That’s changing with TeacherGiving.
Educators truly control where to direct funds with TeacherGiving. It’s the only site that actually tracks purchases through a spending card. Educators can acquire funds from anyone they wish, and the money is shown on the site so that contributors can be assured that their contributions are being used as intended. Reporting shows as an aggregate of where money is spent.
Retaining Privacy
Anonymous donors aren’t a new thing, but remaining incognito in a digital world can be tough. There aren’t always options for benefactors who want to support classrooms anonymously. Anonymity is often an incentive for people who want to give.
TeacherGiving protects the identities of patrons and students alike. No student photos are published without proper permissions, and students are not named on educator pages. Supporters can also contribute completely anonymously; it will only be seen by TeacherGiving itself, which has strict privacy parameters in place.
Keeping it Real
Ensuring Integrity
The level of trust passed on to educators by supporters is significant. Integrity is expected and exists in almost all educator/community relationships. However, mistakes and even outliers happen.
TeacherGiving helps maintain crowdfunding integrity by blocking expenditure of funds at non-qualified businesses. For example, the card won’t work at a bar, but it will work at a restaurant used to feed students on a field trip. TeacherGiving sets all necessary guardrails to ensure that funds get where they need to go.
The Nitty Gritty
Here are the technical details of TeacherGiving: with both an app and a website, TeacherGiving is optimized across screens. It has been integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay from the beginning to make it easy for supporters to donate. It also supports Apple Wallet, so educators can tap and go when they’re making a classroom purchase.
Making Crowdfunding Better
There’s a lot right with crowdsourcing for education today, but there’s always room for improvement. TeacherGiving is designed to optimize the crowdfunding process for educators and patrons, to ensure the best possible student outcomes in education.
Join the TeacherGiving platform launch list today for updates.
