TOP TEN TRICKS & CREATIVE MARKETING FOR DONORS CHOOSE

MY TOP TEN TRICKS 

1.  Always have a project up.  You never know who might fund it.

2.  Take advantage of matches, promo codes, and partner funding opportunities (student-led, financial literacy, environmental awareness, Quill). Pay attention to the details.

3.  Prime times are at the end of the summer and December.

4. Check your email and the blog for new opportunities: http://www.donorschoose.org/blog

5. Promote your project, especially during the first week, for extra funding.

6. Donate to your own project first to get the ball rolling.

7.  Don’t use too much jargon.  Speak the language that a donor will understand.

8, Say “thank you.”  Have your students write thank-you cards either handwritten or typed.  Your thank you notes are a reflection of you, your students, and your school.  Express your thanks through social media.

9.  Be patient.  Your first project will probably be funded very quickly.  Your others might not.   The more you market, the more likely it will be funded.

10.  Browse through other teacher’s projects to get ideas for your own project.

CREATIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES

1.  Twitter (add appropriate hashtags and handles: @donorschoose, #donorschoose, subject-specific organizations, companies)

2.  Facebook groups, Remind101, emails, student learning management systems,
Back to School and parent-teacher conference flyers.

3. Donate to other projects.  Become a part of a community of donors.

4.  Share, showcase, and then ask for funding.  Share some great teaching resources, links, or teaching ideas.  Showcase what your students are doing in your classroom.  Explain how donors can further support your mission.

5.  Many teachers leverage the power of social media through Facebook and Twitter to share their DonorsChoose projects, but here ways that you can enhance your marketing.  

a.  One "old school" ways is to create flyers, but who has the time?  Use http://printandshare.org to quickly and easily create flyers to send home with your students and to give to parents during Open House and conferences.

b.  A "new school" way is to combine web tools.  I like to use https://www.edu.buncee.com to create a digital flyer that I can share with parents and community members through https://www.remind.com.  Then people who receive my message through their email or text can instantly visit my project page to donate.

c.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so use more pictures!  Create collages of pictures using the PicCollage app or  kick it up a notch and insert video using the PicPlayPost app.  If you don't have permission to share pictures or videos of your students, show pictures of the items you are requesting .  For example, who knows what a Hokki stool is?

#tlchat we have a makerspace area, but there is making going on all over the library pic.twitter.com/yxlKRXJSUk

— Kristina Holzweiss (@lieberrian) March 15, 2016