Raising Money for Education
There are several reasons why School Grants are not necessarily the best and only way to raise money for your school. These reasons include:
- Your need may not match a suitable grantor’s schedule
- The grantor’s program may be oversubscribed for the year
- You are unable to provide the level of detail that a grantor needs
- There may not be enough time to complete the grant process
- An appropriate grant may not exist.
When these problems arise, why not introduce a fundraising initiative instead. Find raising can be much quicker, meaning that your all important project gets off the ground sooner.
You need to bear the following in mind
- A crucial difference between a grant and a donation to a fund raising effort is that, while a grantor may already have a budget, a donor seldom has. With a grant, you often just need a single target. With a fundraising project, on the other hand, you need to use a shotgun approach because you are after many, far smaller gifts.
- Do not try to re-invent the wheel yourself. Rather speak to colleagues in other schools and learn from their fundraising experience. In fact, any community-based organization will have ideas and useful background too – what about churches and other non-profit groups.
- Before you leap off into the unknown, you need to have a clear idea of where you are heading, and what you must achieve. What are your project objectives? How much money do you need? Who are your donors likely to be? In the last regard, do not forget to include the students at your School, and their parents too. You will be surprised how much money you could raise this way, and every little helps.
The following is a useful checklist that many Schools successfully apply:
- Is your idea compatible with School ideals and values? If not, holding a bikini contest at a religiously conservative institution could be a bad idea. Rather think again.
- Has the School Management Board or other body approved it? If not, then going ahead without this could be a career-limiting move.
- Do you have to register your scheme with some or other body?
- How are you going to raise the money? Are you planning a concert, sports day or similar event? Will somebody underwrite the costs for you in case your project flops?
- Who is going to help you in terms of time? You cannot plan, rehearse and manage a concert while also taking gate money and cooking food. Make sure that you will have enough resources available on the day.
- Finally, are the benefits likely to be worth the time and effort? Too many well-meaning teachers rush off and bust a boiler, only to be deeply disillusioned on the day.
Remember too that people get tired of Schools asking them for money all the time. At all costs, avoid too many fund raising efforts in a year. Experience suggests just one or maybe two a year, carefully chosen so that they will twang the heartstrings of the community. That way, your chances of success will be tht much greater.
Fundraising is often a quicker way to raise money. A school fundraising initiative needs careful planning, to make sure that the results are worthwhile, and that the organizers can cope with the pressure too.
