Search form

Funding

Flea Market Fundraiser
A flea market on campus is a priceless find for building relationships with the community. Families sell their gently used goods while the school markets its concessions and local vendors socialize on a small city street. It's a fundraising event with fringe benefits!

Cookbooks Whip Up Fun and Funds
In what could be described as true "kitchen magic," school organizations are cooking up a virtual feast of funds by gathering recipes and publishing them in the form of school cookbooks. Included: What makes a "hot seller" in the field of school cookbooks?

Discount Card Fundraising Made Easy
Tired of the same old fundraising approaches? Discount card fundraisers are gaining in popularity. These fundraisers are a win-win for your entire community. Your school or organization can earn money while local businesses gain exposure and new customers.

Fundraising Q&A: Commonly Asked Questions
Do you have more questions than answers about current fundraising opportunities? Jenny Ann (her full name) has heard all the questions, and here she answers a few of the most common ones she gets from people responsible for raising money for school and community groups.

Intro to Fundraising: You Need to Raise Money, Now What?
Your fundraising efforts can either be a source of frustration or a unity-building way to make much needed money for your group -- so it is important to make the right choices, plan ahead, set a timeline, and rally the troops. Included: Tips for fundraising success.

Distinctive Charity Shares Stache of Cash with Schools
They may not be commonly recognized as a philanthropic group, but in cities across the United States men are banding together to raise fuzz and then razing that fuzz as part of a unique charity -- Mustaches for Kids -- that generates money for kids in local schools.

Competition Spurs Energy Savings
One district recently challenged school leaders and other staff 93 identify ways to reduce energy consumption and help cut the districts electric bill. In return, schools that reduced consumption the most got to share in the savings. Could this idea work in your district?

Student Spellers Earn Dollars for School
While looking for ways to raise money without spending money, a retired teacher heard about a spell-a-thon at another school and brought the idea to her former colleagues. Pledges students earned for correctly-spelled words yielded $15,000 for the school.

Artsonia: Online Gallery Raises Funds, Art Awareness, and Self-Esteem
At a time when money for the arts is limited, one online resource seeks to support local schools in one broad stroke. Artsonia is a masterpiece: a fundraiser for the arts and a free online gallery for student artwork. Included: Tips for Artsonia newbies.

School Foundations Help Out in Hard Times
Many communities are coming to the aid of their schools by setting up educational foundations that channel private donations toward specific schools or programs. Included: Foundation directors share tips for getting a new foundation off the ground.

Districts Offer Incentives to Curb Teacher Absences
Several recent studies showing the negative impact of teacher absences on student achievement, plus rising substitute costs, have prompted some districts to offer teachers incentives to reduce the number of days they take off.

"Sharing the Dream":
A Grant Competition Links Schools And Communities

Do you find it difficult to maintain a strong and healthy bond between your school and the community? This is just what the National Association of Elementary School Principals hopes to foster with its "Sharing the Dream" grant competition.

GoodSearch: Fundraising Through
Internet Searching

You may be surprised to learn of a program that requires little effort and capitalizes on something everyone in your school community is already doing -- searching the Internet. GoodSearch, a search engine powered by Yahoo!, donates revenue to participating schools.

Bidding for Dollars: Online Auctions Help Schools Earn Cash
As budgets stretch to the breaking point, public schools are discovering the powerful fundraising possibilities of the auction with a technological twist. The flexibility, convenience, and popularity of online auctions enable schools to tap a limitless base of supporters.

Yearbooks Capture Elementary, Middle School Memories
The yearbook is a classic souvenir of high school days, but today elementary and middle schools are getting into the act. Preserving the priceless moments and toothless smiles of young children is the goal of hardworking advisors, parents, and students.

If You Were Handed a $10,000 Windfall
Principals can make a seemingly small windfall like $10,000 go a long way! Thats what we learned this month when we gave members of our Principal Files team $10,000 to spend. The principals offered wise tips for spending in ways that add true value.

Fifteen Ideas for Fundraising Fun
Need to raise money to fund a school trip, buy new uniforms, or for needed classroom supplies? Education World offers 15 fun ideas for school fundraising. Included: Idol competition, Penny Challenge, poster sale, Anti-Dance, more.

Fifteen More Ideas for Fundraising Fun
Last month we offered "Fifteen Ideas for Fundraising Fun" in your school. This month we offer 15 more new ideas to raise money to support school programs. Included: Rock-a-Thon, Turkey Legs Contest, Goat Insurance, Lip Sync Contest

Carle, Cleary, Rowling, and [Your Students' Names Here]: Kids Can Be Published Authors, Too!
Kids will be encouraged to write when they know that their work will be published in a book, especially a beautiful hard-covered book. Learn how to get started with book-writing projects for your school or individual classes. Create a book of students' poems, about your community, of recipes...

Classified Web Page Raises Money for Schools
A bake and yard sale veteran, Falmouth, Maine, resident Carolyn Gillis decided to take school fundraising to a higher level. She founded, Classroom Classifieds, a free Web site that generates money for schools from items that community members sell.

Halloween Party Alternatives from UNICEF
Replace your typical school Halloween party with a valuable service-learning project. This lesson plan presents many fundraising ideas. Included: A detailed plan for a Read-a-Thon for UNICEF, plus ten more ideas and links to many others.

School Stores Teach Lifelong Skills
This "local shop" can stock merchandise ranging from pencils to tasty snacks, and sell its wares to students, teachers, principals and even the occasional visitor. A school store, however, is more than a "convenience store;" its shelves also are stocked with the materials for building academic and lifelong learning skills.

A "Signature" Event: The Autograph Auction as a School Fundraiser
When some students' need for shoes was discussed at a school meeting, Marty Kelsey saw a potential event that would be entertaining, require little investment, and, hopefully, raise ample funds -- the Celebrity Autograph and Shoe Auction!

65 Percent Solution: Gimmick or Gold Mine?
Founders of the First Class Education movement want all states to mandate that 65 percent of education dollars go to "in-classroom" expenses. While that may sound great, educators worry that the definition of classroom expenses is too narrow.

More "Do" for Less "Dough": Inexpensive Field Trips Enhance Learning
Seasoned educators recognize that field trips are the stuff of which learning and memories are made. Teachers share ways they get around money issues to provide inexpensive trips that are both meaningful and memorable.

A Community Pitches In to Repair its Schools
A lack of maintenance and funding had taken a toll on Baltimore, Maryland's schools. A call to the community for help this summer, though, yielded donations and thousands of volunteers who completed hundreds of thousands of dollars of work -- and are still at it.

Lean Regime: A District Cuts Almost Half Its Administrators
With a ballooning deficit and shrinking resources, Mundelein High School District 120's superintendent decided in 2003 to pare down its administrators' ranks by almost half. While there have been challenges, staff members are making the new system work.

The School-Building Dilemma: Is Leasing the Answer?
Some states and organizations are taking a new approach to opening schools. Can leasing buildings or enlisting private entities cut costs or at least speed up construction? Included: Descriptions of some public-private partnerships.

Would You Switch Schools for More Money?
Staff turnover and inexperienced teachers increasingly are seen as hindrances to improvement in poor, low-achieving schools. Some see extra money as the best way to attract and keep good teachers in these schools.

No Retiring from Dedication
After 30 years as a third grade teacher, retirement couldn't stop Jill Herrick from being an educator. She founded a mini-grant program to help teachers fund hands-on projects, and an awards program for third graders who "work their tails off."

Saying 'No' to Title I: Why Three Districts Did It
Nobody turns down federal grants -- or do they? Call it Yankee independence, but three Connecticut superintendents, new this year to the Title I list, decided the costs and mandates associated with accepting the money outweighed the benefits.

Party! A Year of Special School Events
Getting parents involved is no easy task. But Education World's "Principal Files" team offers some great ideas for school-wide events that are sure to draw parents in large numbers. Included: More than 30 events to add to your school calendar!

Budgets Pose Multiple-Choice Dilemma for Administrators
With education budget cuts continuing, there is no relief this year for administrators trying to meet an ever-shifting bottom line.

Beyond the Bake Sale: A Guide to Phenomenal Fund-Raising
Looking to marshal your parent volunteers into an effective fund-raising team? Jean C. Joachims book, Beyond the Bake Sale, offers a manual for principals. Included: Advice on launching and maintaining effective fund-raising efforts.

Show Me the Money: Tips and Resources for Successful Grant Writing
Many educators have found that outside funding, in the form of grants, allows them to provide their students with educational experiences and materials their own districts cant afford. Learn how they get those grants -- and how you can get one too.

On the First Day of Christmas, the District Office Gave to Me...
Principals can dream too, cant they? We asked Education Worlds Principal Files team to dream big. We gave them $25,000 as a holiday windfall and asked what they would do with it. They had no trouble coming up with ideas.

Indian Island Principal Reflects On Native Schools' Goals, Challenges
Last spring, Education World visited two Native American reservation schools in rural sections of Maine, part of the continuing series Lessons from Our Nation's Schools. In this article, Education World news editor Diane Weaver Dunne talks to Linda McLeod, principal of Indian Island School, which is located north of Bangor, Maine.

Old School Buildings: Prehistoric or Worth Preserving?
A recent report from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) makes a case for renovating old school buildings instead of razing them. Although demolition might be the wisest choice in some instances, the NTHP offers resources for helping school boards decide whether to raze or renovate. Education World writer Ryan Francis recently spoke with members of three communities that have faced that dilemma.

Hawaii Teachers Approve Four-Year Pact
After 20 days on strike, Hawaii teachers are back in the classroom, "feeling good about what they did," according to the union's executive director, Joan Lee Husted. Teachers won not only a significant pay increase but also additional professional days and more compensation for continuing education credits.

School Vouchers 101: An Overview of This Year's Hottest Campaign Debate
One of the hottest political issues of this presidential election year is the school voucher -- tax dollars used for private schools. Political debate and legal wrangling has focused, in part, on using government money to support private, religious schools. Included: The results of two Harvard University studies that evaluate school voucher programs after one year.

Need School Supplies? -- Ask and You Shall Receive!
An organization called PENCIL connects the dots between New York City schools and businesses that have surplus supplies to give. Through PENCIL programs, the schools obtain funds, materials, and support. Is it possible to obtain similar benefits for your school? One principal offers his best suggestions for forging an educational partnership with your community. Also: Information about a handful of programs that help provide needed supplies for schools.

Fund-Raising Ideas: Raise Money Without Selling Door-to-Door
How far would you go to raise needed funds? Would you kiss a pig? Organize a game of cow chip bingo? Paint Pepsi on your school roof? As school budgets seem to buy less and less of what educators and parents believe students need, money from fund-raising is becoming more and more important. Some school districts are discovering -- or creating -- new ways to raise money.

The Selling of Our Schools: Advertising in the Classroom
Are our kids for sale to the highest bidder? Do we tell them proper nutrition is important and then plaster the school's walls with signs saying, "Things Go Better With Coke"?

From Billboard to Chalkboard: Advertising Creeps Into the Classroom
Corporate advertisers are spending big buck$ to get their names into classrooms around the world. And schools strapped for ca$h are letting them do it. Why? And what can school administrators and teachers do to make sure kids are getting the right me$$age? Included: Media literacy and money managing Web sites for kids.

Are Your Schools Entitled to Professional Development Funds They're Not Receiving?
If you're school is like thousands of schools across the country, finding the money to fund professional development programs is a constant struggle.

Show Me The Money!
Funding and Budgeting Teacher Bonus Programs