Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

This guide contains many practical tips on how to make your next carnival a success. Jim provides advice based on his own experience and from those of other school volunteers like you. Besides just planning the carnival, the book helps you reach the goal of making the carnival a great school fundraiser.

No Comments »

School supplies– from pens to paper and curriculum materials–are essential to learning.  With the economy and budget cuts it has been tough for many schools to provide the supplies needed. The Tools for Teaching contest sponsored by Catalogs.com and eNasco.com can help teachers face this challenge. Participants have the opportunity to win up to $2,500 in school supplies for their classrooms.

All you have to do is go to the website www.catalogs.com/teachers and answer the question: “Why does your class deserve to win a gift certificate from eNasco.com and how will you put the school supplies to good use?”

This contest runs through runs through Wednesday, September 30, 2009.  Tell all the teachers you know to sign up for this contest.  They could win some great materials to outfit the class for the school year!

No Comments »

As we read through the grant applications, it was great to see such a variety of subjects.  There were quite a few applications for fine arts: music, visual arts, and dance.  One that particularly stood out to me, since I was an Art History major in college, was the application from Will Rogers Learning Community in Santa Monica, California.

Art teacher Wanda Boudreaux said:

Students who are involved in the process of thinking critically and creatively are apt to succeed in more subjects. We believe in the “multiple intelligences” approach to learning and understand the importance of curriculum integration and crossover in teaching. Our experience in teaching visual art provides overwhelming evidence in support of these beliefs.

After taking inspiration from a well-known piece of art students acquire new skills and practice techniques. Students engage in projects that challenge them to create an original response. We present a wide variety of activities in order to promote discovery and experimentation with materials and methods. Among that broad range of art making experiences, grade appropriate projects have included photography, shaded drawings, paintings, collages, installation art, printmaking and sculptures.

Our goal is to help students develop a strong relationship with art, which they will carry with them as they grow.  Children’s spirits are an open door through which art is eagerly embraced. Our Art Program provides a necessary opportunity to inspire the creative and critical thinking that, while deepening their individual humanity, also gives students’ greater success in all subjects.

To recognize the importance of fine arts and this presentation in particular, we selected Will Rogers as an Honorable Mention. Congratulations Will Rogers students, parents and teachers.  Keep up the great work!

View the full page one

View the full page two

No Comments »

The third school to receive an honorable mention from the Top School Fundraiser Grant is Loma Verde Elementary School, located in Novato, California.

Like the first two schools to garner the honorable mention recognition, Loma Verde submitted a high quality video in making its application.

In the request, the principal of Loma Verde, Eileen Smith, (on behalf of her 385 K-5th graders) discussed a situation in her school that more and more schools are coping with nationwide, and that’s the problem of a rising number of students who don’t have English as a first language. As a result of this, Principal Smith has found that even though these students can be very bright and have excellent ideas to share, they are having great difficulty joining in the group learning process due to the language barrier.

To help students with this challenge, the folks at Loma Verde requested $4,000 to purchase two Elmo Digital Visual Presenters and two LCD projectors. These tools would be shared by the teachers to better explain and allow participation by all students. Principal Smith described, for instance, how one of these Elmo Projectors (I don’t think there’s any relation to the Elmo on Sesame Street…) can be used to both project and enlarge the image of a sheet of paper, but it can also be used as a large projection microscope for 3D items. It’s very clear to see how useful these items could be in a classroom where verbal communication is sometimes difficult.

Once again, we are learning first-hand how some very serious problems in our school districts can be solved, or at least greatly helped, by new technology. Unfortunately, new technology is very expensive and often out of financial reach. This means that creative and effective fundraising methods are needed now more than ever. That’s the goal, here at Top School Fundraisers.

Stay tuned for many more posts dealing with the ever-increasing need to fund large technological purchases for our schools.

Thank you, Loma Verde, for your excellent application. We wish you the best in finding all the funds you need to help bridge this gap.

Watch to see the simple yet compelling video presentation from the principal of Loma Verde Elementary School.

No Comments »

Star Prep Academy in Culver City, California, is another one of the schools who received an honorable mention for their excellent grant application. The 6th to 12th graders at Star Prep put together an excellent video presentation that really got our attention by communicating their need for new laptop computers. In my opinion, some of the students in this video have a promising future in acting, given their dramatic performance!

The students at Star Prep find themselves in an unfortunate situation that many students are facing today- insufficient access to up-to-date technology. The cost of both hardware and software have made it increasingly difficult for cash-strapped schools to keep up and provide their students with the tools they will need to compete in a global marketplace.

In the near future, Top School Fundraisers will be looking at some solutions to this growing problem. We urge schools, like Star Prep Academy, to keep searching for the necessary funds.

Take a couple of minutes to view their video application. You’ll get a great sense of a wide-spread need throughout our entire country.

Thank you, Star Prep, for your terrific application! We wish you the best in meeting your goals.

1 Comment »