Schools…perpetual fundraisers. Like it or not, many of our schools are dependent upon the generosity of their families to fund things such as books, field trips and technology. Students selling goods to friends and family and their school often seeing a return of less than 50%. Any given day one can find numerous fundraising efforts posted on their Facebook wall.
Why not leverage our social media circles to help our schools achieve their goals more efficiently? Crowdfunding (also referred to as crowdsourcing) is fundraising mostly through the use of social media; asking many people, and their “network”, to each contribute a small amount. Unlike a traditional “fundraiser”, the school/organization collects nearly all of the donated money (host sites may withhold a small percentage), your marketing is not limited to those residing nearby, and donors typically do not receive anything in return. You can find crowdfunding for everything from disaster relief, to company start up funding, to big names such as Spike Lee looking to fund his next movie.
I have yet to try crowdfunding, but looking into it for our middle school next year; so I wanted to reach out and ask the community:
Have you used crowdfunding in your school? What were you raising money for? What takeaways can you share for others interested? What worked and didn’t work?
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