By Lisa Anderson
So you spent your $250 teacher stipend on pencils, paper, ink cartridges and other basic, boring yet necessary items that you need to run your classroom. You have a great idea for some materials to enhance your current unit but no money left to buy them yourself. Head on over to DonorsChoose.org.
Last week I submitted a project to get some indoor gardening supplies for my classroom. By Saturday the project was live, by Sunday it was fully funded and by Tuesday 90% of the materials I requested had been delivered.
At our grade level meeting this week I shared my quick success and several other teachers in the room said that they had always meant to look into getting materials funded on Donors Choose. So my question is what are you waiting for?
So you spent your $250 teacher stipend on pencils, paper, ink cartridges and other basic, boring yet necessary items that you need to run your classroom. You have a great idea for some materials to enhance your current unit but no money left to buy them yourself. Head on over to DonorsChoose.org.
Last week I submitted a project to get some indoor gardening supplies for my classroom. By Saturday the project was live, by Sunday it was fully funded and by Tuesday 90% of the materials I requested had been delivered.
At our grade level meeting this week I shared my quick success and several other teachers in the room said that they had always meant to look into getting materials funded on Donors Choose. So my question is what are you waiting for?
The process is quick and easy. You visit their website and sign-up for an account. (Check out their tips for success!) You choose the type of project you are looking to fund it can range from materials, class visitors or a class trip. If it is materials you seek you get to go shopping and fill an online shopping cart through one of their approved vendors like Amazon, Lakeshore and Best Buy just to name a few. Then you tell the Donors Choose world your story by answering some quick questions about your classroom and how you intend to carryout your project. There are character limits to each question and each question requires no more then a few sentences to complete. I completed my entire project application in less than one hour. I submitted it for review and within a few days it was shared via my Facebook page by Donors Choose when it was approved for funding.
My project was quickly funded by two co-workers and my generous uncle. But the best part about Donors Choose is that you don’t need to rely on your friends, family and co-workers to get your project funded. Many of the donations are from complete strangers and sometimes they remain anonymous. They also offer MATCHING donations usually from large companies for the first 7 days and they share a project code for you to share with potential donors to receive that matching donation. Using the matching donation helps fund your project even quicker!
My project was quickly funded by two co-workers and my generous uncle. But the best part about Donors Choose is that you don’t need to rely on your friends, family and co-workers to get your project funded. Many of the donations are from complete strangers and sometimes they remain anonymous. They also offer MATCHING donations usually from large companies for the first 7 days and they share a project code for you to share with potential donors to receive that matching donation. Using the matching donation helps fund your project even quicker!
Once your project is funded all that is left to do is take photos of your project in action, write a brief essay explaining the impact the project had on your classroom and have your students write thank you notes for your generous donors.
I was lucky enough to get a project funded last year as well. Have you been fortunate enough to get a project fully funded? Please share your success in the comments. Additionally, I’d like to pay my recent success forward by contributing $20 to the next Morrill teacher who posts a project AND comments on this post (email me to let me know).
P.S. this blog post is not an endorsement for Donors Choose, I just really like free stuff for my students!!!
I was lucky enough to get a project funded last year as well. Have you been fortunate enough to get a project fully funded? Please share your success in the comments. Additionally, I’d like to pay my recent success forward by contributing $20 to the next Morrill teacher who posts a project AND comments on this post (email me to let me know).
P.S. this blog post is not an endorsement for Donors Choose, I just really like free stuff for my students!!!