Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

While it is totally understandable and commonplace for someone to have strong alumni passion for his or her university or high school, it is more unusual for a person to get fired up over a former elementary school. I mean, nobody is out spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on season tickets to a fourth grade intramural basketball game. And although I can’t prove it has never happened, I highly doubt people from one end of this country are purchasing clothing apparel from an elementary school on the other end.

Does that mean, however, that elementary schools shouldn’t consider developing a proud alumni tradition within their own community? Of course not! For all of the reasons that alumni are important to high schools and colleges, they can be a vital part of fundraising, student recruitment, and organizational leadership at lower level schools, as well. I would argue that an elementary school that is not out actively recruiting alumni help is missing a fantastic opportunity.

Here is a list of 15 strategies to get more former students involved at your elementary school.

1. Maintain Updated Address Lists
In order to keep in touch with people as they grow older and move on from your elementary school, it is important to maintain accurate and current mailing addresses and email addresses, as well. If this has not been done at your school, start now to develop a database for your current students. It may be a big undertaking, but it would also be wise to go back through past student records and match them with current high school students. This way, you have a jump on those kids who will be the next generation to go out into the “real world”. continue reading

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This is a very important note to all of the leaders of parent-teacher cooperative groups.

Tuesday May 6, 2008, is national Teacher Appreciation Day. Actually the entire week surrounding this date (May 5th to May 9th) is Teacher Appreciation Week. That gives us less than one month to put a plan in motion. Between today and the May 5 Teacher Appreciation kick-off, I will post numerous ideas on the best way to honor your children’s teachers.

Today, however, I want to make the case for this commemoration to those schools that have never acknowledged their teachers in this honorific capacity.

1. Saying Thank You is the Right Thing To Do
The first reason is the most obvious. We should simply say thank you to our kids’ teachers in a very sincere way, because it is the right thing to do. For approximately 180 days per year, seven hours per day, this one human being is with your child. That’s over 1,200 hours per year! This is a significant time investment he or she is making in your offspring.

The teacher has to be the educator, referee, counselor, friend, parent, protector, nurse, role model, and friend all wrapped into one tidy package. Since the average classroom has over 20 children in it (some many more than that!) the teacher has quite a daily challenge to face. Going out of our way to say thank you to him or her is the absolute least we can remember to do.

2. Cheer for a Strong Finish
As Teacher Appreciation Day occurs in early May, the end of the school year is clearly in sight. And, as the weather improves, it gets harder to keep the students’ focus on their studies. This makes the teacher’s job all the more difficult. I would imagine that the last four or five weeks of a school year are just about the toughest they’ll endure.

A flurry of encouragement from the parents is a great boost. Like cheering supporters at the end of a marathon, the teacher will feed off of your praise, attention, offers of help, and even gifts. If there was ever a time that you could lend a hand in the classroom, this is now it. It’s been a long school year. Help your kids and their teacher finish strong.

3. Teaches Students The Value of Appreciation
As parents, we’re always looking for ways to teach our kids real-world lessons. These kinds of lessons are always best when we actually model the desired behavior. Therefore, I urge you to take the opportunity of Teacher Appreciation Week to show your children the ways to and the reasons for being sincerely grateful.

Show them how we are called to thank and honor those who serve us and then also how we can serve them in return. If our children see us doing this regularly and with a gracious and giving heart, they will follow suit and make that an important part of their own lives.

Conclusion
In the coming days, I’ll be writing a lot more about ways to show our kids’ teachers that we care about them and are thankful for all they do. If you would like to share any of your experiences, I would be happy to pass them along to our entire community. Thank you!

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2008 Mary Lou Anderson Reflections Arts Enhancement Grant Program

Here is a great opportunity that came to my attention recently for a $1,000 grant. There is an application deadline of May 1, 2008, so if you are interested in pursuing this possibility, keep that in mind.

This grant originates from the national offices of the Parent-Teacher Association- The PTA. The program is designed to help local PTAs develop student-centered programs focused on arts education. Schools that have large populations and a significant number of “at-risk” students are given special consideration. Areas of study could include: visual arts, photography, music, dance, literature, and theater.

The award may not be used to cover overhead expenses or capital improvements. The funds must be spent on the actual development and implementation of the proposed program.

For more information, including a printable application form, please visit the PTA website.

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As a principal, one of the regular frustrations I had was making sure information I wanted/needed to get home into parents’ hands actually made it to its intended destination.

The amount of papers that go home with students today is monumental. Corrected homework, tests, quizzes, art projects, teacher newsletters, flyers from other non-profits, school picture packets, field trip permission slips, fundraising materials, progress reports, and report cards- the list is indeed substantial. If a family has multiple children, absolute chaos can break out in trying to sort through all the essential and non-essential notes.

The following list details some of the strategies I used in attempting to make sure the things I considered important got home.

1. Be Consistent
People crave consistency and uniformity. Try to design your newsletters or letters with a common masthead or logo placement, so parents are trained to recognize important information from the office. Maybe you could get a huge stack of goldenrod copy paper at the beginning of the year and not allow teachers to ever use that color. Only important bulletins from the office ever are printed on goldenrod. continue reading

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As I have written in the past, one sure-fire way to increase your fundraising results is to boost the level of your school spirit.  The more people love and identify with their school, the more likely they will be to open their wallets for it. 

Here are a few links to articles that tackle the issue of school spirit from a number of different angles.  Enjoy!

The website My Clay Sun, has a fun article about building school spirit in a school-wide dodge ball tournament.

From the Education World web site, here is a great collection of ideas from principals on how to use year-long themes to boost school spirit.

The blog Cheer4Life, posts a number of school spirit week activity ideas. From a young person’s perspective. Totally.

Here is an interesting article by Chris Ellis posted on the Business Ideas blog about the importance of branding your school.

Here is a sarcastic view of school spirit from the perspective of a student on his blog. Good for a quick laugh. The title of the post is “You Are Now Required to Show School Spirit”.

This is another list of school spirit activity ideas. This one is from the Teens page of Lovetoknow.com

From Christy Forhan at the PTO Today website, here is a terrific, in-depth article on building school spirit.

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Many non-profit organizations, especially schools, hold a silent and/or live auction to raise money each year. Both public and private schools have discovered that auctions can be very lucrative.

However, there is a down-side to auctions, as well. Since this fundraising method is so popular, they have become over-done in some towns. In my small community, for instance, there are at least six separate groups that hold annual silent and live auctions. This makes for a very crowded calendar.

While I support each group’s absolute right to raise money, there is an undeniable pressure put on local merchants to donate items to all these auctions, as well as on people in general to buy tickets. If someone is only slightly involved in this community, it is possible he will be invited to six separate events during the course of one year. This can put an individual in a number of awkward situations. While everyone is entitled to say no, the practical and political ramifications can be slightly more complicated than that. continue reading

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