How one school funded a library bus using multiple sponsors and, overleaf, how another crowdfunded two marquees


We did it! ‘WE RAISED MORE THAN £11,500 IN 12 MONTHS’


‘We wanted to improve the reading skills of our pupils so that our data was above the national average. In particular, we wanted to drive up enjoyment of reading among boys, who often tend to struggle to engage with books. The headteacher and I were keen to tackle this issue head on by creating a buzz about reading. The only question was how? Our old school library was an


uninviting box-shaped room, with tall rows of shelving and nothing at all to entice the children to explore its contents. I could relate to the boys’ lack of motivation with reading as all I had wanted to do at their age was play sport. I’d seen a couple of library buses in action, and I thought perhaps we


6 AUTUMN 2020 FundEd


could take this idea and add even more “wow factor” for the pupils by refurbishing an old double-decker bus. But having run a deficit of just over £30,000 for a number of years, the school had no spare budget capacity. Our governors wouldn’t allow any spend for the reading project to come out of the school budget, so that meant raising the money through sponsorship, grants and anything else we could think of. I started drumming up business


sponsorship by visiting a couple of industrial estates in the village, armed with a clipboard and copies of an “All Aboard the Ann Edwards’ Library Bus” leaflet. I also produced a sponsorship form so that we could secure written commitment of a


financial contribution of at least £250 from each company. In return, we offered to publicise their support by putting their logo on our bus. Out of the first 15 companies we visited, 13 signed on the dotted line, agreeing to donate at least £250. We eventually got 30 businesses on board! I also applied for a Tesco Bags


of Help grant and a Ministry of Defence Education Support grant. These were both successful and gave us an additional £3,500 towards our total. I posted lots of status updates about the project on LinkedIn, using the hashtag #AnnEdwardsLibraryBus. This very quickly generated lots of interest and sponsorship from five national


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