Check
out this sampling of articles from recent
issues of Successful Fund Raising - Schools
Edition Newsletter...
---------------------Grants
for Schools-------------------
Funding Teacher Projects
a Bright Idea
School foundations
find many creative ways to raise funds
for their districts, but finding
creative ways to distribute those funds can
be of great benefit, too.
“People always like to
give to specific causes and programs,” says
Janice Montgomery, executive director of the Bartholomew Consolidated School
Foundation of Columbus, IN, a foundation that distributes revenue strictly
through awards and grants. “The community
really supports this approach, and in terms
of payroll deductions, teachers know that
the money they contribute will
come right back into their classrooms.”
The foundation administers
a variety of funds, but its flagship effort
is the Bright Ideas teacher grant program,
a service that has been operating since
1955 and has awarded more than $1 million to thousands of local teachers.
To
be considered for a Bright Idea grant, teachers simply complete a two-page
application form and submit it to their principal for approval. Proposals
are then reviewed by a committee that includes
the assistant superintendent, the
directors of elementary and secondary education, a representative of the
center for teaching and learning, a middle
school counselor, a school board member,
and Montgomery herself. Because the committee typically receives about twice
as many projects as it can accommodate, it can choose to fund grants fully,
partially or not at all.
Though the Bright Ideas program
distributed more than $10,000 in awards last
year, Montgomery
emphasizes that the grants mean far more
than the dollars
and cents they allocate.
“A grant of three or four hundred dollars barely makes up for the money
most teachers spend out of their own pocket,” she says. “What really
matters is the recognition it gives, recognition of a teacher’s efforts
to make school applicable, personal, meaningful and real for kids.”
For
foundations looking to establish their own granting program, Montgomery
shares three no-nonsense suggestions:
Source: Janice Montgomery, Executive Director,
Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation,
Columbus, IN.
-------------------Corporate
Programs---------------------
Corporate Matching
Augments Gifts, Involves Community
No
school foundation would turn down the chance
to double their fundraising dollars. Yet
many do just that by failing to take advantage
of the charitable matching programs offered
by local businesses.
“Our corporate matching
program is highly, highly used,” says
Annette Perry, executive director of the
Linn-Mar School Foundation of Marion, IA. “Many
companies that don’t otherwise give to foundations or endowments are
willing to donate to causes their employees support. Honestly, it’s a
win-win situation for everyone involved.”
With 21 participating employers,
the matching program is a central part of the foundation’s fundraising
efforts. Recently an elementary school walk-a-thon, for example, secured
more than 100 employer matches, a figure representing between
one-third to one-half of all donations by Perry’s estimate. Revenue
from the entire program totaled around $25,000 last year and constituted
around
10 percent of total gifts.
While matching programs can
be a powerful fundraising tool, they are
not without their challenges. Perry notes
that some businesses
place restrictions
on their
matches, supporting secondary education but not elementary, or prohibiting
donations to athletic programs.
To accommodate such requirements
the Linn-Mar Foundation allows donors to
channel contributions
to funds supporting the school, activity
or program
of their
choice. These designated funds, of which the foundation manages more than
50 at any given
time, provide a way to earmark contributions and meet employer conditions.
“Our general fund suffers
a bit,” Perry says, “but it allows
donors to support a wider variety of programs.”
Though building
a robust corporate matching program can take time and effort, it doesn’t
need to be intimidating. Perry offers four simple steps for those just
getting started:
1. Incorporate as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
organization.
2. Contact the local Chamber of Commerce
to identify large local employers.
3. Contact the human resources departments
of those businesses to inquire about local
or national matching programs.
4. Build a list of participating employers,
share it with parents and friends, and urge
those supporters to ask their own employers
about matching programs.
Source: Annette Perry, Executive Director,
Linn-Mar School Foundation, Marion, IA.
-------------------Athletic
Fundraisers---------------------
Six High Schools, One
Highly Successful Fundraiser
Though less than a year old,
the United Mount Diablo Athletic Foundation
needed
to raise serious money and fast. Because
of the economy all funding for athletic
programs in the East San Francisco Bay
Area school district were eliminated the
previous spring, and time was running out
for this year’s winter sports programs.
“We’d done a couple
small fundraisers, but we were scrambling
to meet a $200,000 goal,” says Pat
Middendorf, president of the foundation’s
executive board. “We knew we needed something big.”
A 5K run/walk
benefiting all six of the district’s high schools turned
out to be that big something they needed. The event was a major priority, but
not even those who helped organize it imagined it would raise almost $110,000
and draw 2,200 participants.
“Combining the high schools
was key,” Middendorf says of the turnout
that more than doubled expectations. “Friendly rivalry definitely
increased student participation, and having them work together drew a huge
amount of attention,
especially from large businesses and prominent community members.”
The
high level of interest led to a wealth of positive publicity and local
media attention. Although foundation officials distributed fliers, posters
and e-mails
promoting the fundraiser, the foundation also benefited from donated
newspaper advertising, news coverage and
television ads.
And though holding a combined
fundraiser meant that all revenue would have
to be split six ways — an objection
raised by some in the early planning stages — the
benefits went well beyond the 5K itself. Middendorf estimates that the
foundation received more than $50,000 in
direct donations — including two five-figure
gifts from community organizations — over the three weeks preceding
the event.
“People were walking
into the office and just handing us money,” she
says of the widespread support. “It was absolutely unbelievable.”
Well
on its way to ensuring a year of hustle and competition for hundreds
of students, the organization looks to be doing pretty well for itself — for
a rookie just getting warmed up, that is.
Source: Pat Middendorf, President, Executive Board of the United Mount Diablo
Athletic Foundation, Concord, CA 94521.
