Crowdfunding success
‘We exceeded our £1,500 target to fund music technology’
‘We decided to try crowdfunding because we’d recently formed a team of pupil digital leaders, trained by the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme, to promote online safety. We were interested in this innovative approach to fundraising, hoping to reach a wider audience. We also liked that Rocket Fund (
rocket.fund) is specifically aimed at the funding of technology to enhance the curriculum. During the government’s 2018
Year of Engineering initiative, we had a visit from EduCE Technology, who showed us a range of new technology. The Roli Seaboard – a super-powered keyboard with 5D touch technology and 24 keywaves, allowing you to play in two octaves – was the most popular with our students. We are in the process of enhancing our computing curriculum and decided that Roli would provide a good link with music and offered a new way to compose and create. It took one afternoon to make and
edit our pupil-led video and create the pledge. We launched the project by sharing the video with the school community in assembly and on the website, which we kept updated throughout the four-week campaign. All supporters received cards made
DonateMySchool
‘We raised £14,000 to replace our IT equipment’
‘We worked with DonateMySchool (
donatemyschool.com) to set up a fundraising campaign to replace our ageing laptops and trolleys with a set of 16 Chromebooks. We decided to use this platform to reduce our administration burden, especially as DonateMySchool claims the Gift Aid on your behalf. We had fundraised previously, but manually, through filling in forms and cheques. With online crowdfunding, this turned into a few simple clicks. When we’d looked into crowdfunding in the
past, the high fees had been off- putting, but they are much less with DonateMySchool. It’s also great for addressing any GDPR concerns your school may have when fundraising, as I didn’t have access to the donors’ details. The platform was easy to use and their support team had a quick response to questions and offered helpful suggestions for editing our fundraising messages. The four-week campaign was
promoted via the school newsletter, social media and leaflets. We had a
by the digital leaders, and trees were planted for those who donated £100. Anyone who contributed £50 was invited in to use the equipment and see the children composing. Our target was £1,500, which we
exceeded with the help of 53 supporters. We raised £2,025 in total, which has allowed us to purchase the Roli Seaboard and Lightblocks, with additional funds going to redesigning the school website, with input from the digital leaders. We hope this will give our students a platform to show their
work to the community that has supported them in purchasing Roli. When it comes to crowdfunding,
it’s important to set a realistic target as this is an all-or-nothing approach and the target can be increased at any time. Also, stay confident – in week three, we were at only 62% of our target, but ended up with 132%! Finally, encourage donations by showing or demonstrating the equipment, where possible, to help potential donors understand what it is and how it will benefit the children and their learning.’ Clare Rogers, computing coordinator, Little Chalfont Primary School, Amersham, Buckinghamshire (257 pupils)
Rocket Fund
big network of supporters already, which was a great help. Donating was simple – all they had to do was register or log in and enter the amount they would like to give. It was mainly parents who donated, but we received support from businesses too. We raised well over our £8,000 target – an incredible £14,000 including Gift Aid, enabling us to buy 48 new Chromebooks. We’ve since launched another
campaign with DonateMySchool – one that also allows donors to give regularly via Direct Debit. To any school thinking of crowdfunding, do it – it’s easier than you think!’ Karl Stringer, PTFA, St Stephen’s Church School, Bath, Somerset (420 pupils)
FundEd SPRING 2019 39
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