Make It Happen!

This has always been my philosophy in providing for my students and staff.

I have to preface this blog post by telling you that this is not an easy philosophy to follow. I do, on occasion say NO. But that is my least favorite word when someone in my building asks for something they truly need. Fact is, if a teacher or student NEEDS something, and I can see and understand their reason for needing it, I'm going to #makeithappen.

First, let me tell you a bit about my school:

• We do not receive Title 1 Funding.
• We receive on average about $5-6K per year for instructional supplies.
• Our county is ranked 99th in our state in funding provided locally.
• Anything beyond what the state provides for instructional supplies is left to our school to find on our own.

So that $5-6K we get each year? It goes to paper. Sometimes if we are lucky, we can buy bandaids for the nurse's room and we try to provide each teacher with $100/year in supplies they need for their room (like construction paper, staples, tape, etc). If you do the math, that $6K is gone in a flash. And in addition to funding all of the above, we have to consider:

• Envelopes and stamps for the front office (among other necessary office supplies)
• Replacing thermometers and other nurse supplies
• Lamination
• Rolls of colored butcher paper
• Charger replacements for devices
• Device upgrades
• ...and 3,284 other things!

I remember as a teacher, if I needed something - I went and paid for it out of pocket. And when you're trying to survive on a newbie-teacher salary, that means eating off the dollar menu every night because you spent every other cent on your classroom. I never asked my Principal(s) for anything because I knew there wasn't money for it. I didn't ask to go to PD because there wasn't money for the PD itself, let alone a sub to cover my class.

So as I journeyed into school administration and saw the amount of needs and lack of funding, I started brainstorming how I could #makeithappen! Below are my ideas and results, and I'd love to hear your ideas and results in return. Note that while some of these suggestions are fundraisers, others are not. As times change, our needs grow and we have to try new ways to make sure our staff and students are provided for.

HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

1. Fun Run - Every fall, we spend about two months prepping for our annual fun run. We use a company called Boosterthon to help us out with this project. When we started, we used the company for everything they had to offer. As the years went on, we began to wean away from all the bells and whistles, allowing our PTO and staff to manage most of it. This past year, we did their most basic package, which mainly provided us with an online system to track pledges and income. The less we use the company, the more income stays in our own bank account. We typically bring in anywhere from $40-60K/year from our fun run depending on how much our teachers promote it with their students and families. 
   
2. Stuck for a Buck - The general idea here is that students buy 1' of duct tape for $1 (5' for $5 and so forth) to tape me to the wall. We try to get the duct tape donated so there's no cost for this activity. Students get to vote for {willing} teachers to be taped to the wall beside me. Our goal is to earn enough each year in order to pay for our school's fee to participate in The Positivity Project. This is approximately $1500. We typically earn between $1400-$2100 just in the three hours it takes to tape us to the wall! Now, here are some tips on this: 1) Put each foot on a separate chair and keep your knees slightly bent, 2) Don't stay up longer than 45 minutes, 3) Use the gray duct tape as a base and cover it up with the colorful tape. Gray tape is far more sticky, 4) When pulling the chairs from under your feet, have two people stand on either side to help you down. Your knees will be a little numb. The laughs and smiles you'll get are worth it, though and 5) Have tape pre-cut before students come out to participate! 

   
3. The Lincoln Exchange - The concept here is to exchange a nickel for a five-dollar bill (a Lincoln for a Lincoln). We only did this one year, and we made close to $2K. At the end of that year, we determined that there was too much work to put into it to benefit much from it. I do know other schools who use this as their main fundraiser and experience great success though. We gave each student 20 postcards with an image of a nickel on it. We then asked them to mail the postcards to 20 friends and family members, asking them to exchange their postcard for a $5-bill. They would mail cash, a check, or could even send via our school's PayPal or Venmo. For every $5-bill students received in the mail, they got an entry into a drawing to be Principal for a Day. 

   
4. Donor's Choose - Our school uses this all. the. time. When teachers come to me and say they need, for example, five new iPads...and I have zero*zip*nada in our tech fund, I ask them to create a Donor's Choose project. Once the project is approved by our school board and Donor's Choose itself, we promote the project on all of our social media sites, through mass emailing, etc. We have only had one project not get fully funded in the past 7 years. Many days there will be donation matching via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and people LOVE to donate when they know their donation will be doubled {and it's tax deductible}. I personally donate $20 to every project a teacher at my school takes the time to submit. Also, on occasion, I go in as a Donor and pick a random classroom to donate $10 to anonymously <3 

   
5. Service Swapping - I don't use this often, and definitely not for cash. My side hustle is photography. You can follow me HERE to see my work. When I came to my school, I asked a few people what "things" the school needed and they wanted to upgrade the refrigerators in two or the workrooms that died. So I offered up a photo session in exchange for used full-size refrigerators. I got them within 30 days! 

   
6. 5K Race - This was our starting line for our 2020 race, the Saturday before NC was shut down from COVID-19. We began hosting a 5K three years ago, I believe. I used to be an avid runner, before I became old and injured ;) I led our school's running club, and wanted the students to have a close by culminating race. Many PTO moms and I worked together to get this up and running, although I should not take any credit. Again, a LOT goes into this to have everything legally ready, but it is a fun community event, brings runners from all over, allows our grades 3-5 students to run together and/or with their families, provides a fun run for 5 & under as well as a 1-mile fun run. The atmosphere is always exciting and we get such great feedback. Our income after expenses ranges from $2-3K. 

   
7. Acquire Business Sponsorships- I began working on sponsorships four years ago. That particular year, we had a monstrous needs list. We needed $13K in instructional supplies, books, online access for specific sites, new walkie-talkies, math manipulatives, etc. While these are things we could potentially do without, our staff felt everything was needed for student safety and success. I created a Tiered Sponsorship Program. Tier 1 was $1000, Tier 2 was $500, and Tier 3 was $100. According to which Tier a business chose, they had more opportunities to partner with us. Some of the opportunities were: 1) Promotion on all of our social media sites and our school's website, 2) Public "thank yous" in our school newsletters, 3) Hallway dedications with a banner, 4) Yard signs along our car entrance drive and 5) Logo on the back of our fun run and 5K tees. Me being an introverted extrovert HATES asking for money. But you gotta do whatcha gotta do. I went only to locally owned businesses. No big boxes, no corporations. I want to support our community, and typically they want to support the local schools. We hit up realtors, restaurants, boutiques, nail salons, law offices, dentists, orthodontists, pottery studios, daycare facilities, landscapers, handymen, coffee and ice cream shops, etc. Each year we have either met our goal or gotten pretty darn close. At the close of each year, we hand-deliver a framed thank you sign with all our staff's signatures that the business can hang up. 

   
8. Create an Amazon Wishlist - This is my newest discovery! Earlier in June, we discovered that our county commissioners were cutting our budget by 5% this coming school year. Instantly, I felt defeated. This is something else that I'm going to have to Make Happen. Typically when teachers leave for the year they turn in a supply list of approximately $150, which we turn around and order as the money comes in over the summer. Knowing that we will likely not get much if any, we asked the teachers to only write down their necessities of between $50-75. I then turned all of these items into an Amazon Wish List (you can click HERE to see ours - and even donate if you feel called). After our list was created, all I did was share it on social media and in an email. I would say that 70% has already been purchased, and is delivered right to our front office. As we add new hires, I add their needs and re-share the list. It's like getting married again and stalking your registry ;) OH - AND - if you use Amazon Smile and link it to your school, you get a % back from the items your donors purchase!

   
9. Make Connections - While the actual act of making connections won't bring in supplies or money, the act will come in handy in the future. Get to know your parents and community members, and their trades. Support them. If you have a parent in realty, ask them to show you houses when you're considering moving. If you have a parent opening a new restaurant, frequent it. A family in construction? Need a new screened in porch? Give them your business. Making these connections and showing your support of their businesses will in turn encourage them to support your school. We have had one of our families repaint the lines in our parking lot - free. We've had concrete poured for basketball and four-square courts - free. Mulch delivered and spread - free. Donated river rocks for our raised koi pond - free. You get the picture. There are things your school needs, that you may not need to purchase because in making connections, you're racking up good karma! 

   
10. Promote Your School - This is my thing. Ten years ago, I talked about this and people thought I was CRAY-ZEE. I'm all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (I've linked each page so you can see them). I keep our school's website as up-to-date as I can {with the help of my webmaster}. The more you get your name out there, the more people talk about your school, the more people want to do for your school. Parents and staff have overheard conversations about our school and all the cool things we do on the other side of the Lake (30-45 min away), because our presence is so large. When you work so hard to build a community and your audience sees your heart, they are the first to jump when you have a need. Here's a silly example: During the spring school closure, we did morning announcements every single day at 8:15 on Facebook LIVE. On a typical day, there were about 400 views. One day, I couldn't remember what day of the week it was {shocker, I know} and mentioned I needed some of those days of the week socks to keep me straight. Guess what arrived anonymously in the mail the next week? Yes. Socks. I didn't really need them, but the fact that someone listened to that and acted upon it really made this #10 thing stick with me. It wasn't about the socks. It was the act of giving back.

There are probably 100 more things that could be added to this list that we do and I just don't think about because they're second nature.  I will try to add to this list as these things come to me and reshare when I do. Like I said earlier, please consider commenting on this post to share with me and other readers all the good things you do to #makeithappen in your building!

Yours,