DonorsChoose.org — Getting Started, Tips, and Pointers

When you teach music in a school with a seriously limited budget you have to get creative.  If you’ve gone through any of my blog posts it’s likely that you’ve seen my DIY projects (and you’ll continue to see them) because I just don’t have the budget at my school to buy anything.  I get $100 from my district fine arts dept. every year and I get another $100 per semester from my building.  In my district, this is lucky.  Most other music teachers only get the $100 from the fine arts dept. and nothing from their building administrator. The trade off is that my building provides nothing.  I have to use my building budget to buy pencils, paperclips, copy paper, card stock, dry erase markers, and anything else that I might hope to use during the year.  Any books, sheet music, or CDs that I use for my concerts come out of my pocket.  Any professional development that I attend comes out of my pocket.  Any Kleenex, hand sanitizer, or other consumables that come into my classroom come from home.

Working with a small budget can be frustrating.  There’s no way for me to buy ANY Orff/Barred percussion, world drums, or most other instruments.  Recording equipment, electronics, and things like “Gameplan” are right at or above my budget.  Fundraising is sort of out of the question because my students live in a high poverty area.  I can’t send them home to sell cookie dough, or chocolate, or other products because their parents and families and neighbors don’t have money to spend on such things.  For many families it’s a stretch when I ask them to pay $3 for a recorder.  I have to be choosey and careful with how I spend the little money I get from the district.  And of course I can’t roll all those funds into one pot and buy a big-ticket item.  Budgets in school districts don’t allow that.  Sigh…

My salvation has come through a non-profit organization called Donors Choose.  I owe so much gratitude to the many donors who have blessed my students and my classroom by donating through DonorsChoose.org.  DonorsChoose is a nonprofit organization that was started by a history teacher, Charles Best, who worked in an urban core school with a very minimal budget.  Best was stealing things from home to take to school and was running out of money.  He knew that there were lots of donors out there from private donors to corporations and more who WOULD donate to schools but didn’t have an avenue to do so.  He created DonorsChoose as a way for anyone to donate to a classroom in need.  Here’s how it works.

DonorsChoose provides a place for donors to learn about the needs of specific teachers, choose a classroom project that interests them, and then give any amount to their classroom of choice.  I post projects on the website, asking for essential things that I need—instruments, books, technology—and donors all around the country can make tax deductible gifts of whatever amount they want to help and purchase the things that I need to make my music program excellent.

I have been so blessed by the way that people have given to my projects and in turn my students have been able to use new instruments and resources and have new musical experiences.  Once we have the materials, I am able to write to donors about how the things they have provided have affected our classroom and show pictures of students actually benefiting from their gift. The beauty of DonorsChoose is that donors are not giving money to a nameless, faceless organization but get to actually pick their project, give money knowing what resource they’re buying, and then see that resource in action in the hands of the students that they chose to help.  What a novel concept!

Setting up the account is super easy and so is submitting a project.  You are asked to provide some information on your students and your particular teaching situation.   The more information you can provide to give context about yourself and your school the better.  Donors are more likely to choose your project if they can put a face to your name and understand the place that you work in.  People want to know that they’re really affecting someone personal and not just donating to a nameless, faceless organization. That’s the beauty of this system.  They actually get to see the materials that are purchased and the kids that they help.  Don’t get overwhelmed by the set-up process and give up on DonorsChoose.  It’s really not that bad and once you are set up the rest is a BREEZE!

I won’t go into detail about how to create a project once you’ve been signed up.  The process that DonorsChoose uses to get a project up on the website is super self-explanatory.  They walk you through it all:  picking a name for the project, finding materials that fit your need, explaining why you need the materials and how you’ll use them, and more.  The process is really, really easy to work through.  The best part is that you can set up a project and let it go on the website.  It might get funded (I hope it does) and it might now, but you don’t lose anything in the process!  You just set up the project and tell people who you’d love to have it.  No selling candy, or writing long letters to donors, or pleading.  It’s a great system and a perfect way for people to help your kiddos!

Start Small  Don’t ask for 14 iPads because you won’t get it right away (unless you know some really rich donors).  Try and keep your first few projects around or less than $400.  Materials add up quickly, shipping and handling can add money, taxes might be applied, and DonorsChoose adds on a small fee to your project so as to help keep their organization running.  Things add up quickly.  DonorsChoose actually even comments on this and says:

Matching Gifts  Also be aware that sometimes you can get matching grants and other helpful things if your project is small (under $350/400 or so).  A matching grant means that some corporation will match any donation to your project (up to a certain amount).  That way small time donors only need to give half of the actual amount of your project to get it funded.  You’ll often also get access to a matching gift code which is sort of like a promo code that you’d use when shopping online.  Just put in the code at checkout and your gift will be matched.  These matching codes are sent out periodically, so be sure to check any emails from DonorsChoose and let your friends/relatives know about matching codes should they want to give to your project!First timers often shoot the moon.  I know people who ask for 12 iPads with their first shot or 4 bass xylophones.  Inevitably their project doesn’t get funded.  Start by asking for one xylophone.  If that’s funded ask for another.  If that gets funded try another one.  Take your time and think long term.  Yes, it’d be great to have all your classroom needs funded in one mega-projeect, but that’s just not likely to happen all at once.  DonorsChoose says this about the subject:

Big Ticket Items  You can get big budget items, but that takes time.  I was fortunate to get a Yamaha Digital piano donated but I got matching funds, campaigned with friends/family, and had an overwhelming and loving response of gifts from people in my church choir.  Big ticket items can happen, but that often will require a little more work from you and sometimes help from friends.  If you really want something big send out an email to everyone you know and ask them to email everyone they know.  Tell your story, be compelling, show why you need your item and tell about how it will change your teaching world.  When I asked for the digital piano I emailed all my friends and family and talked about how my old upright piano would easily fall out of tune, it was hard to move, and when I sat down to play I couldn’t see my students over the top of the piano.  I had to stand to play or loose sight of the little ones.  I also talked about all the great opportunities a digital piano would afford us.  New beats, integration of new sounds, beats and riffs I wouldn’t get otherwise, recording opportunities and more.  Tell your story and let them really know how it will change your life.

Music Material Vendors DonorsChoose has a list of approved vendors who give special discounts and who DC uses most often.  You can use vendors who are not on the approved list but it takes a little longer and is a little more difficult to do.  For musical products DC uses Woodwind Brasswind (WWBW.com) for music orders.  If you’re thinking about getting musical stuff surf their website and it’ll give you a good idea of what you’ll be looking at.  WWBW has been amazing and fast and I LOVE their customer service.  One downside is that you cannot order Wenger materials from WWBW, or at least they’re not always available.  You can also order from companies not on the immediate vendor list.  I’ve done several projects where materials were supplied by West Music.   In that case you need to contact West Music directly and ask for a quote which you will submit to DC.  Tell West that you’re doing this quote for a DonorsChoose project!

Non-music Vendors You can also get some musical things through other vendors (BestBuy Corporate for electronics, Lakeshore Learning for classroom stuff, etc.).  The best development in the past few years is that DonorsChoose is now using Amazon.com.   You can get a lot of wonderful materials from Amazon and nearly anything marked “Amazon Prime” is available to order through DonorsChoose.

Need some ideas? See My Projects LIVE or Archived

If you have questions PLEASE feel free to leave comments on this post (then everyone else who has the same questions can get them answered in one place), email me at MakeMomentsMatter@gmail.com, or contact me through my Facebook page.  I’d be happy to answer any question you have, give advice if I can, or help you through any problems you might be having with DonorsChoose.

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