At AdoptAClassroom.org, we’re lucky to have awesome individual donors who adopt teachers, and great corporate sponsors who make large impacts with national campaigns. Another group making a big impact in their communities are small businesses.
Do you work for a small business looking to get more involved in the local community? Adopting teachers through AdoptAClassroom.org is a great way to foster a personal connection with the schools in your area.
We’d like to share some easy, fun ways to get your staff involved in a fundraiser, based on projects completed by other companies like yours. Have another cool idea? Email our Social Media Coordinator to let her know how your business raised a hand for teachers!
1. Host a company-wide event
We’d love to be an excuse to bring your employees together. And if your staff is anything like ours, food can be one of the best ways to do that. We’re OBSESSED with the Mac-n-Cheese fundraiser Inside Academics hosted:
“Our ‘Fun Committee’ (yes, we have a committee related to all things fun) planned a Mac-n-Cheese fundraiser. Employees brought in their favorite/secret family recipes to compete for an extra day off work!”
With a matching company donation, they were able to raise $1,790 for teachers in their community!
2. Motivate continued learning
Would your employees benefit from completing somewhat boring but informative online trainings or courses? Let us be the extra enticement. Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) did just that:
“For each e-Learning course completion during a specific time period, our employees are able to choose one of these literacy-based charities as the recipient of a PCA contribution [including AdoptAClassroom.org]. While our employees improve their on-the-job skills, this program lets them improve the lives of the community.”
3. Encourage community participation
Maybe your employees are already onboard, but you want to encourage your customer base to get involved. Come up with a plan to make donations based on customer participation. Squishables does a great job of this, and adopted classrooms this June:
“Every month we donate a dollar to charity for each picture we receive for our picture gallery!”
4. Plan a trivia night
Raising money for education while testing your own knowledge makes trivia an obvious choice. Ad 2 hosted a trivia night at a local venue. Charging $10 per person, they raised hundreds of dollars for local classrooms. To increase the stakes, let the winning team pick the teacher(s) who receive the money.
5. Pool staff donations to make a larger impact
No bandwidth to plan an event, but still interested in getting your company involved? Pick a time of year when many of your employees are making charitable donations (the end of the year, for instance) and invite them to pool their money. It’d be great if the company could match donations, but even if funds are tight, the money of 20 employees (or even of five) can go a lot further than one person alone. There are plenty of classrooms in your community that need funds. You could even have employees take turns choosing different teachers each month.
Ready to get your business on board? Click here to find classrooms in your area.
