Bake sales not raising enough dough? Tired of holding car washes in the dead of winter to raise enough money for your spring production? Although there’s nothing wrong with doing either to raise money, these activities may not be raising enough money to meet your needs. The EdTA Fundraising Toolbox is designed to give you some fresh fundraising ideas, arm you with some basic rules of fundraising, and help you bring in more money with less work.
Start with whom you know
The best way to start raising some serious money is to start with the people who have the closest relationship with your school program: your alumni and parents. Are you keeping in touch with your alumni on a regular basis? Do any of your students’ parents work for a big corporation that might be willing to donate some money to your program? It’s a lot easier to get a donation from someone who already knows your school and theatre program than convincing a stranger that your program is important.
It’s not “fundraising,” it’s “friend raising”
The process doesn’t end once you receive a donation—you have to keep the donor involved to get them to come back next year. Send them thank-you letters at every available opportunity (try to thank them seven times within the year), invite them to your school performances and programs, and keep them updated on your troupe activities. Not only will they feel involved and want to keep giving, they also will feel appreciated and be able to see the difference their donation has made. It’s for the kids
Granted, it’s hard to ask someone to give you money, but it’s a lot easier to ask for people to donate to a worthy cause: your students. Never say, “Will you give me money for my Thespian troupe?”—always say, “Will you help these kids by making a donation to their Thespian troupe?” Sounds a lot better, right? You’ll also find this is a lot easier to say.
Alumni
Have you kept a list of contact information for your alumni? Many private schools have been doing this for years, and it’s time that public schools catch up! If you don’t have a list of alumni for your troupe on hand, start by going to your school’s administrative offices to see if they have been keeping track. If that fails, try placing an ad in your local paper to find local alumni and go from there.
Once you have a list, start with the alumni who seem the most connected with their old high school and Thespian troupe. Send all of them “update” letters to keep them informed of the programs and productions during the school year and invite them to attend. Don’t forget to send letters requesting a donation once you’ve gotten them involved! This will take time and money, but it’s also a perfect project to delegate to your students. The Internet is also an easy and inexpensive tool for keeping in touch with your alumni. Some websites already have comprehensive databases and communities for you to access your alumni for free or for little cost: www.classmates.com
www.reunion.com Parents and Boosters
You don’t have to do all of this on your own, and you will actually be much more effective if you have some help from your students’ parents. If you don’t already have a Booster Club for your Thespian troupe, there is no better time than the present to establish one. Ask the parents to do alumni mailings, create an alumni newsletter, collect contributions for the troupe where they work, or oversee fundraising activities. If you need to start a Booster Club, try approaching existing Booster Clubs within your school for support. For example, try approaching your music department to create a collaborative Booster Club. Corporations and small businesses
The best way to get corporations and small businesses from your area involved: start with your students’ parents. (This is where the Booster Club can help!) Find out from your students if any of their parents work for a big corporation in town—if you talk to the parents about how much their child loves being a Thespian and how much you really need some support for the fall production, they will probably be willing to give you a donation. After all, it’s their companies’ money they are giving away, not their own. Corporations and businesses are usually motivated to donate if they can get some media exposure, so make sure to offer them something in return, such as a free ad in your play program or placement of their logo on posters and newspaper ads. Make sure to draft an agreement in the form of a signed letter so that there won’t be any future misunderstanding about each party’s role. Grants
Writing a grant is one of the most straightforward methods of raising money because the requirements for receiving a grant are explicitly spelled out. In addition to state and local arts councils, there are many private and corporate foundations created for the specific purpose of donating money to education and the arts. To make grant applications even easier, some foundations have a form to fill out, so all you have to do is answer their questions. In some cases the foundation may ask you to write a formal proposal to request support. Check out the Helpful Websites portion of this Fundraising Toolbox to find webpages that show you how to write a grant proposal (along with samples for reference) and offer databases for finding a foundation that meets your needs. Special events
Special events aren’t always the most effective way to raise money—they take a lot of time and preparation—but they can get you a lot of publicity, which will benefit your program in other ways, such as ticket sales. The best tip for a fundraising event: make it unique! Part of the reason bake sales and car washes don’t raise a lot of money is that everyone does them. Try to offer an event that no one else in town is offering. Since these events do take a lot of time and preparation, this is a task you should assign to your Booster Club and/or a parent volunteer(s). If you’ve had a successful fundraising event and would like to share it with other troupe directors, please forward your story to Deb Fletcher at dfletcher edta.org. (You will need to type this e-mail address into the message’s “To” field; to help protect against spam, this is not a link.)
Grant writing
10 Tips for Grant Writers
A short and sweet list of do’s and don’ts for grant writing
40 Tips for Grant Writers
Just in case you need more tips! Grant Writing Tutorial
Need a little more information before you get started? This tutorial walks you through the grant-seeking process and even provides a mock grant-writing activity. Grant Seeking Primer
Well-organized and easy to follow, this site offers an overview of what’s needed to help you develop a winning proposal. Grantseeking in Minnesota
No matter which state you live in, you’ll find pertinent, comprehensive information about the parts of a proposal; examples of typical forms and applications; and answers to the most commonly asked questions. School Grants
Provides grant writing tips and a variety of grant proposal samples for easy reference. Grant Writing for Educators
This link takes you to a wonderful Power Point presentation on grant writing by Joanne Kinsey that is specifically geared toward teachers. You don’t need Power Point to view this presentation; however, it is in a format that is not downloadable. Funding Sources
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Provides contact information for each state’s arts council; search by specific state. State Departments of Education
Contact information for each state’s department of education, in case you don’t already have it. Grants Alert
A free online database of corporate and foundation grants specifically for education. Check out the Additional Resources column on the right side of the homepage for links to other helpful online resources. Target Foundation
Target gives millions of dollars to local school programs every week, and their grant application is easy! Grants.gov
Here you can register to receive e-mail notifications about grants in categories that interest you. (Think twice before signing up to receive e-mail notices about all the grant postings, unless your mailbox size and time are limitless.) mathSURF’s Teacher Site: Educational Grants
Don’t worry: This site isn’t just for math teachers! Every teacher can browse the list of funding agencies and pick out the one that suits them best. Funders are organized into three categories: government agencies, national and regional grants, and state-wide grants from corporations and foundations.
If you are still looking for smaller-scale or year-long fundraisers for your students to help with, try either of these two websites for products that your students can sell:
Educational Marketing
Special thanks to the Grant and Related Resources website for contributing to the above list of websites and descriptions. Back to top of page |