Fundraising challenges are top of mind for the 2024-25 school year. School is back in session, and students are well on their way to a full year of learning and creating. The pens, paints, and paper are fresh and new, and the classroom is stocked for the beginning of the school year. While we all love the smell of freshly-sharpened pencils, we also know that those supplies will dwindle quickly — meaning that teachers need to replenish their classrooms. This is where school fundraising ideas come in.
Education funds across the country are too squeezed to cover every need at every school, and this is where teachers are getting creative when it comes to covering classroom supplies and requirements. There are some fantastic, dynamic ideas out there to overcome each fundraising challenge, creating opportunities to overcome challenges of a teacher and keep the classroom running smoothly all year.
Let’s open our notebooks and take a look at ideas for a fundraiser together:
Overcoming Fundraising Challenges with Student-led Projects
Using student projects and activities in fundraising opportunities for schools is an effective strategy that speaks to community investment in education. It’s a win-win situation: students get to showcase their hard work, and teachers can tap into it as a pulse point for fundraising. Supporters love receiving something tangible for their contributions, with the added bonus of having something social media-ready to drive interest. (More on that later.)
Here are a few ideas on how to use student materials to raise contributions:
- Art Auction: Create a special art project for students, with the intention of auctioning off individual pieces. There are bonus points if these projects can show a new technique or skill, or if it’s a subject that appeals to the community. This art project should speak to contributors, whether it tells an individual student’s story; focuses on a local attraction or event; or showcases what life at their school is like.
- Class Cookbook: Here’s where the parents and guardians can pitch in: a class cookbook. Students can provide family recipes and a personalized story about each, and teachers can compile them into a book to sell to raise funds for an individual project or overarching classroom needs.
- Craft Night: Break out those art supplies and throw a student/parent craft event. These can be easily put together with a “bring your own supplies” approach, and can raise contributions either through fees to participate or purchases of the finished products.
Fundraising Challenges and Social Media
No fundraiser would be complete without social media. Here are some ideas to get started, and the more content teachers are able to put out, the more valuable the return.
- Back-to-School Kickoff: Start the school year right by running a back-to-school campaign in the summer. Use a personal blog, X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads or other social channels to raise awareness of what is needed to jump start the school year. This goes beyond parents sending tissues and hand sanitizer as class supplies — it’s about getting community buy-in early and teeing up the expectation that their support will be needed throughout the year.
- Work Those Networks: The great thing about education is that it comes with a built-in network: parents. Spreading the word today is easier than ever, and incentivizing new supporters to invest in students can be an easy sell if done right. Creating a ready-made post for your network to share will provide a broader reach and drive traffic to the fundraiser. Crowdfunding platforms like TeacherGiving makes it easy to share fundraising campaigns across multiple social media channels.
- Recognize Students: Social media is a great way to put a spotlight on exceptional students, or students with compelling stories. Spin up a picture, video, and inspirational post and spread the love on social — directly tying it to the contributions of classroom supporters. These are student-centered stories that educators can tell for months and even years to come.
- Spotlight Classrooms: Propose a classroom spotlight post to a school’s PTO/PTA or administration through their channels. This will allow educators to share the post along with specific fundraising requests, while adding their own touch to the content. Support is all about reach, and tapping into a large network is an effective strategy for raising contributions.
Student Incentives for Fundraising
Don’t underestimate students’ desire to pitch in on fundraising. Events and programs tied to student ability and output can be very effective in engaging supporters and soliciting contributions — and aiding in classroom management.
- Read-a-Thons or Walk-a-Thons: From reading challenges to turkey trots, student activities play a huge role in garnering support for teachers. Sponsoring a student or a classroom is a great way for supporters to get involved in fundraising efforts that directly benefit students — both by including them in the efforts and showing them the outcomes.
- Gamify Fundraising: Every penny counts for teachers when it comes to class projects. Set goals and challenges that when met, lead to fun classroom activities, like a movie day or themed dress-up day. This is a solid way to take in a little money while creating fun for students.
- “Fill the Boot”: Holding a time-sensitive online fundraiser with a specific goal is a tried-and-true way to drive support quickly. Similar to firefighters’ “fill the boot” campaigns, schools can deploy students to directly solicit support in their communities — and today, this can be done with a QR code or wish list fulfillment like TeacherGiving instead of cash. So what’s the incentive? It’s the teacher’s choice, but ice cream parties or extra recess time are two popular rewards if students meet the goal.
Crowdfunding Education
The right strategy for the right audience is the key to garnering a return on your fundraising efforts. While bake sales, raffles, and school carnivals will always be effective ideas, there’s plenty of room to deploy more comprehensive strategies to meet fundraising goals.
Take a look at these crowdfunding strategies:
- Corporate Giving: Wooing corporate donors is one of the most lucrative ways to bring in large donations, including donation matching. Use those social networks and community pride to tap into corporate giving for larger projects or classroom needs.
- Wish Lists: This strategy is most effective for teachers, who can personally take donations and apply them wherever needed. Individual donors are typically open to crowdfunding an outcome, whether it be a certain number of library books procured or new art supplies to feed students’ creativity. Crowdfunding platforms like TeacherGiving can make wish lists easy and effective so that supporters can contribute with the click of a button.
- Thank-You Wall: A thank-you wall may sound simple, but it can be a very powerful way to acknowledge those who have already supported the classroom and incentivize those who haven’t. This also ties back to social media in that the thank-you wall can be shared on social channels, in emails and newsletters, and even through local media if there’s a story about the school.
Fundraising Outcomes: Show and Tell
Sharing outcomes of support with benefactors and wider audiences helps people stay engaged and motivated to give. Show them what they’ve made possible and tell them why it’s important.
Below are some tangible examples of show and tell:
- Describe the Problem: It’s important to share exactly what problem contributions helped solve. Outline the challenges pre-funding, detailing the impact on students and teachers, and communicate the below points to kick off the next fundraising cycle.
- Proof of Success: Share pictures of those new musical instruments or a teacher’s well-equipped classroom, thanking supporters and highlighting what these purchases mean for students.
- What’s Next: Consider holding an event for supporters in the classroom, illustrating where the funds have gone and what else is a top priority for gifts.
Alumni Support for Fundraising Efforts
One audience we haven’t covered is alumni — from schools of any grade level. Many alums are invested in the continued success of their school and fondly remember their teachers. Now is the time to tap this part of the community for the benefit of students.
Here are ways alumni can help:
- Monthly Donations: Recurring giving is a set-it-and-forget-it way to garner contributions from alumni who want to give back.
- Donor Incentives: Similar to the thank-you wall, creating recognition for donors and showing them how they’re upleveling students’ classroom experience are excellent incentives for them to give.
- Yesterday vs. Today: Take a look back at classroom staples and setups from specific decades and show them how far education has come with a primer on what students use and need today. This is meant to be a nostalgic exercise that shows alumni exactly how far classrooms have come since their student days.
The key to overcoming fundraising obstacles is to embrace the community — and to have the right tools for people to give. In today’s age of QR codes and instant mobile payments, giving has to be easy and seamless. TeacherGiving delivers exactly that: the ability for individual teachers to drive effective fundraising and, ultimately, positive student outcomes.
About TeacherGiving
TeacherGiving is a crowdfunding platform designed for educators to raise contributions individually for classrooms. It enables them to receive direct financial support from their communities so they can enhance their students’ learning experience.
With TeacherGiving’s user-friendly debit card system, educators have the flexibility to spend contributions at virtually any store, supporting local businesses and avoiding restrictive shopping options. Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, it also emphasizes transparency, allowing educators to show how they spent their funds by giving them a place to upload their receipts.
When you launch your campaign on TeacherGiving, you’re making space for community involvement in creating a well-rounded, up-to-date classroom where students can flourish.
Join the TeacherGiving movement and set your classroom up for future success. Learn more at teachergiving.com.
