Funding success
for families who are unable to access government support or need more urgent help. We also wanted to provide internet access for families unable to fund it themselves. We decided to use any surplus to create a hardship fund for our disadvantaged students. We launched the appeal just
before the Easter weekend and advertised it through the Chestnut Grove Academy newsletter, Wandle Learning Trust, the Friends of Chestnut Grove social media, and local press. To our amazement and gratitude, we reached our target in less than 20 hours. We increased the target to
£10,000, which we were able to reach the following week, so we have now raised the target again – to £15,000. It’s been heartening to see how generously people in our wider community have responded. The crowdfunding page was
very easy to set up, and has proved easy to use for our donors too. We understand that the team at DonateMySchool have been working remotely, but they have managed to provide us with very swift support and assistance when required. We have been able to collect our
funds through our PTA, which is a registered charity, and therefore DonateMySchool will also collect the gift aid for us – taking a small and very competitive cut for the administration and hosting. We are already supporting several
families with the money raised, and with additional donations from local companies, generous local donors and some trusts and grants. All support is being delivered remotely by our teachers and tutors, who know the families well and who have liaised closely with them. Donations are being delivered and packaged with smiles, words of reassurance and a sense of togetherness during what could otherwise be a solitary and isolating time. We are immensely proud of our
achievement to date with this campaign and hope that it will support our families that need it through the Covid-19 crisis.’ Sharon Noble, development manager, Chestnut Grove Academy, Balham, London (1,125 pupils)
‘WE RAISED NEARLY £7,000 TO REFURBISH ONE OF OUR CLASSROOMS’
‘Our small village school of 88 pupils, aged 4 to 11, is surrounded by beautiful countryside and is very well supported by the local community. We work hard to provide a welcoming and stimulating learning environment for our pupils. However, our Victorian building and Elliot mobile classrooms have seen better days. So last autumn, we launched a £5,000 fundraising campaign to refurbish and redecorate one of the Elliot buildings. Known as ‘Fire Class’, the building
is home to our Year 3 and 4 children. It has had various alterations over the years, including a cloakroom space, where the ceiling had begun to leak. The carpet was popping up, the blinds were stuck and it was in need of some TLC. When we launched our campaign on
DonateMySchool.com, we uploaded photographs showing the condition of the classroom to highlight why we needed help. We also posted comments from
the children to support our appeal, such as “the walls are grotty and the paint is coming off” and “the ceiling in our cloakroom is dripping, which is making our books soggy”. A link to the DonateMySchool site
was added to the parents’ section on our school website. The site was a good focal point for our fundraising
and it meant people could donate anonymously (we received a couple of large donations this way). We also benefited from the Gift Aid that the site collected on behalf of our PTFA. We were able to publicise our
campaign through our PTFA and school Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as in our village magazine. We also got coverage through our local town (Wincanton) website and newsletter. In addition to crowdfunding, we
carried out our own fundraising, with events such as a Christmas market (which raised around £400) and carol singing. The children in Fire Class also got involved by running various competitions and cake sales. Our chair of governors, who felt her children had really benefited from attending the school, was particularly proactive in drumming up donations. We received a large cheque
from the village committee and another large donation through the crowdfunding campaign, and were delighted to exceed our target by the end of term. The final total of £6,721.96 will enable us to transform our classroom.’ Mary Alexander, headteacher, Horsington Church School, Somerset (88 pupils)
‘The DonateMySchool site was a good focal point for our fundraising and it
meant people could donate anonymously’ FundEd SUMMER 2020 7
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