CREATE CHANGE WITH CROWDFUNDING


Crowdfunding can exceed your expectations – in more ways than one, as these three schools tell Heather Park


‘WE EXPECTED TO RAISED £200 – WE RAISED MORE THAN £3,000’


‘Our old goalposts were unsafe and completely unusable, so we decided to raise funds for new 11-a-side goalposts to enefit oth our school and the neighbouring Bullers Wood School for Girls. Bullers Wood School for Boys is


brand new, currently with only Year  pupils, so this was our first experience of crowdfunding. It seemed a great way to involve parents in a project and get the end product without too much effort. A parent put me onto RocketFund,


and, while I was unsure at first, it was easy to set up. I thought there must be a catch, but there really isn’t. There is no commission to pay, so all the money raised goes


40 AUTUMN 2019 FundEd


to the school. RocketFund even checked our project was achievable and made recommendations before our campaign went live. We didn’t have a big network of


supporters beforehand and never thought we’d raise what we did. I expected to raise £200, and we set £500 as our initial limit. Minutes after the project went live, we started getting pledges. One parent promoted the project to big businesses, and we received £500 in donations from four companies, raising £2,000 in one morning! The project was successful


because it was a simple idea that catalysed the goodwill of so many people. Parents shared it on Twitter


and spoke to prospective parents to raise awareness. Alongside our campaign, we held


a bucket collection at Bromley Football Club. We were “school of the day” and collected funds at the turnstiles, with pupils taking penalties at half time. This raised a further £380, bringing our total to £3,582. Our campaign has allowed us to purchase and erect two new sets of goalposts, to be used by both Bullers Wood schools for ootall fitures and lessons, allowing students to play more games at their home venues.’ Stuart Collins, head of PE, Bullers Wood School for Boys, Bromley, Greater London (180 pupils)


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