As you may know, one of my hats entails operating a giving page for Donors Choose projects. I love being able to help teachers get the materials they need to provide the best education possible without breaking their own bank. I am asked quite often what are my tips and tricks for getting projects funded. So, in response I am writing this blog post. I am by no means an expert and have only known about Donors Choose since January 2014-about 7 months. In that time I have had 18 projects fund, and several thousand dollars worth of quality materials donated. Each item chosen by me, and specifically tailored to the needs of my classroom. I also had the extreme privilege of being visited by Donors Choose and Google, who funded all projects in the Atlanta area on that day! The way that all of this came about started with a blog that I stumbled upon displaying a classroom layout. The teacher-author had gotten a table funded by Donors Choose. I looked up Donors Choose and I was hooked!
Wow! That was wordy! If you are still reading here are my top 10 tips-plus some newbie mistakes I made-for Donors Choose funding.
FYI I will refer to Donors Choose as DC in this post.
Write a quality project. If you have no idea what DC is the very next thing you need to do after reading this blog post is to sign up for your free teacher account at
donorschoose.org . If you don't have a request on the site you have a 0% chance of funding. I suggest that you take some time sifting through the site and look at projects that are funding, also look at the projects that haven't received any donations. Once you have an idea for something that you need in your classroom begin writing your project. My first project was for a computer table. See the picture below to realize that this was a NEED in my classroom. Many teachers request an iPad as their first project. While they are highly useful and I have had 3 funded myself, they are not seen as a needed item in the eyes of donors. Wait until you have had a bit more experience on DC before tackling a large technology project. After you decide what to ask for you need to write a quality essay. Donors will read them and judge your teaching ability based on this small writing sample. Put some time and thought into writing it or it will be apparent to your donors.
Cost-Keep your projects around $200-not over $300 with the extra handling costs. I know the feeling of a kid writing a Christmas list with money seeming to be no object. As I will get to in the next tip-you will be spending money on DC. So, don't fill up a cart with everything under the sun.
It is best to break up large projects into smaller, more manageable projects. Try to stick with a theme. For example in
this project I asked for really boring school supplies-pencils, writing paper, erasers etc. So, I turned it into a Writing project. The project essay was a wanted ad for wonderful writers. It is the project essay that I am most proud of.
Once your project is submitted and approved your main goal is to get it to the DC homepage. This is a list of 10 projects that donors see when they first sign-in to the website. That means that it is right in the faces of the donors and is VERY likely to fund. I have personally never seen a project make it to the DC homepage and expire without funding. So, how do you get it onto the homepage? There is one factor that is out of your control. The higher the poverty level that your school is listed at the more likely it is to get on the homepage. This is an automatic indicator that is determined by the number of students who receive free or reduced lunches at your school. It is possible for moderate or low poverty school's projects to make it to the homepage but it is harder for them. But, let's not dwell on the things we cannot change, and focus on the things we can!
Be your first donor. If you don't believe that your project is worth money. Why would anyone else? But hold out on donating $20 to your project until you read funding tip #4.
This is a 2 for 1 tip-
Trading and INSPIRE.
Rather than donating $10 to your own project. Donate $1 to it and then use Facebook groups like
Teachers Treasure Chest or
Teachers Trading Teachers to trade with other teacher's projects. The reason for this is that rather than having 1 donor to your project you could get 10 donors to your project making it more attractive to donors and closer to the DC homepage.
Do most of the trading during the first 7 days after the project posts, and have the people you are trading with use the code emailed to you when it posted. It is usually INSPIRE but sometimes it changes. The code will allow the donation to be matched by one of DC's partners effectively doubling the donation. Set an amount that you are willing to donate and stop trading when you reach that point.
Don't short the clock. CONFESSION TIME! When I first started on DC I read a blog that advocated setting a shorter time limit than the traditional 4 months. The thought was that it would post as a red clock and would give donors a sense of urgency. So, that made sense to me. I posted a short clocked project. Thankfully, I had a wonderful giving page admin. gently let me know that this is NOT a good plan. Donors didn't get their extra money by being unintelligent. It is very easy to figure out when a project was posted. Also, it does not look favorable to giving pages which you want your project added to.
Secure a spot on a giving page. This is so extremely important that I have NEVER had a project fund without the help of a giving page. This has also been the most difficult thing to explain to my coworkers, but it is oh so important! Giving pages are Facebook pages operated by teachers with DC projects like me. They are supported by other teachers with DC projects. Giving pages are not affiliated with Donors Choose in any way except gathering donations. Most pages have a Facebook and a page on Donors Choose where you can see the featured projects for each page. Giving pages help you by hosting contests where you might enter with a small donation to another project for a chance to win a larger donation. Also, they usually host contests or events to add projects to the pages.
All giving pages are not created equally. I am adding a tip from giving page operator and DC teacher, Sheldon Jordan. He said, "
Giving Pages, Giving Pages, Giving Pages! Select the ones that meet your needs. I would watch and see the activity on the giving pages for a week to see if they are worth joining!" I completely agree!
..I am going to stop myself and save an explanation on how giving pages work for another blog for another day. You can find most giving pages by doing a search on Facebook for Donors Choose.
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| Giving Page on DC |
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The same giving page on Facebook
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Seek outside donations.
Ask your family and friends to donate during the first 7 days and double their donation with the inspire code.
Ask your student's parents. I teach in a school that is classified as highest poverty, but last year I had several parents and grandparents donate to projects. After all the purpose is to enrich their child's education.
Send Facebook messages or emails to ANYONE you can think of that might donate. I had a Hokki stool project earlier in the year that had a childhood obesity match. I sent messages to gyms, children's gyms, childhood obesity foundations. Out of about 40 messages I got one donation. But, it was one that I wouldn't have had before. Utilize social media to spread the word about your project! You are competing with 20,000 projects on the site. People don't know about your need unless you tell them! I mostly use Facebook to spread the word, but there are many teachers who swear by Twitter and Instagram. At a whopping 12 followers (mostly DC teachers) I don't feel like my tweets are heard around the world. But, if you have a large following use it!
Last year my wonderful team leader, I will call her Mrs. H in this post. She posted a project requesting 75 copies of a particular novel to be used for a grade-wide novel study. After sending a message to the publisher and being swiftly denied, we sent an email to the author. She forwarded the message to the publisher and 75 copies of the book arrived at our door!
All you can do is ask. All they can do is say no..but they might say yes!
One more tidbit-you can use this website
http://printandshare.org/proposals/search to create fun printable flyers with QR codes to your project. These can be sent home with students, hung up in the public library, etc. Here are samples that I made using the website and a link to Mrs. Fortino's project currently featured on my giving page,
And How Are The Children on Donors Choose.
High quality thank yous. As soon as you receive a donation you need to make time to thank that donor using the reply button below the donation. This is one of my shortcomings. I know that life gets busy, but don't make donors wait days to be thanked. This rule goes for trading and contests also. Donors don't know which donations are trades, so you need to thank each and every donor individually and in a timely manner.
DO NOT SAY THIS IN EVERY REPLY, "Thank you." That makes you seem lazy to donors. This person took time out of their day and money out of their wallet to donate to your project. Give them a unique message. This is also a time to let your personality show. Stay within the rules of grammar and don't use informal language, but show that you are fun and excited about their donation.
For newbies I would suggest
focusing on 1 project at a time. If you have 5 projects posted you are not going to be able to give each one the attention they deserve and need to be completed and become a reality in your classroom.
Once you have a few projects under your belt I would advise you to always have an extra project posted. You never know when a large donor will sweep in and fund every project in your area. However, this happens very rarely! But, it is a good idea to have something extra posted just in case.
Patience. Projects can be on the site for 4 months. When I first started DC I would obsess about changing the number on the amount left on my project. If you do this you are more likely to overspend on your project. Follow these tips and then wait. If you work for it you will get donations. However, once your project is added to a giving page or two patience does not mean forget about the project and let the giving page worry about it.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. DC projects require work and money, but once your first project arrives at your classroom door and you see this look on your kids' faces you will see that it is worth it. The kids are so worth it!
I hope that you were able to glean some helpful info from this ultra long blog post. In writer's workshop we refer to this as a Brain Dump.
I asked the teachers on Teacher's Treasure Chest for their tips for funding. Here are their responses.
Do you have a tip for getting classroom materials funded through DonorsChoose.org or a question about anything discussed here? Please leave us a note.
If you have read this far you certainly have what it takes to fund a DC project....perseverance!
