Teachers are essential for the entire school system and sometimes we can take them for granted. Here are some fun ways you can say thanks for their hard work and seamless way to gather the funds to make it all happen.
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Our platform comes with powerful tools that can help you communicate with volunteers and parents as well as fundraise when needed. These include:
These campaigns encourage parents and volunteers to donate directly to your school group. FutureFund makes it easy to collect money online during the campaign which will help fund your teacher gifts or anything else you need to raise money for in hopes of showing appreciation to the ones that make the school day go round.
Learn how to run a donation campaign with FutureFund here.
Tip: Remember to use FutureFund’s messaging system to announce the fundraiser and include a link to the online campaign.
Coordinate your gifts to a summer fun theme! Take donations to cater a beachside or beach-themed cookout for your teachers. The donation can be set up through your FutureFund account and community members, families, and students can donate to the cause.
You could go even bigger by aiming to raise enough funds to send your teachers out on a boat for an afternoon on the lake!
Have lunch from a popular local spot catered to the breakroom for the teachers! Create a donation campaign and ask for families and community members to donate in the efforts of celebrating and showing appreciation to your teachers.
See also: Teacher Appreciate Week Resources
You may even want to create an online sign-up list asking for volunteers to help serve the teachers.
Give the teachers a gift card for their favorite self-care service, activity facility or place to shop! Not only is this an easy donation campaign to run, but it also gives the teachers an opportunity for a personal treat, which is preached but never truly practiced by the majority of teachers.
Host a sweets bar in the teacher’s lounge one day after school. Make sure to have their favorites included in the spread. Have everyone donate funds to support the vision. And then the PTA can fill up those candy jars for the teachers to enjoy!
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Get StartedPut together a goody bag of treats and other items with a card “explaining” what each item can be used for i.e. “animal crackers, for when the classroom feels like a zoo” or “a rubber band, to remind you to stay flexible”. Create a donation campaign so those who’d like to contribute can donate funds to each teacher’s survival kit.
Deliver a “room service” card to all teachers to take their “order.” Then tally up what’s needed and come around with a “room service cart” to make deliveries. Options could include sodas, iced coffees, water, and tea, as well as cookies, trail mix, chips, and other similar snacks.
PTA members, students, and even admin can get involved in the deliveries to make them more memorable. All you have to do is make your donation campaign in honor of the goods to stock your menu.
Bring extra supplies that the teachers are low on for their classrooms. The PTA can take a special inventory of what each teacher needs and deliver their preferences or they can just buy a bunch of supplies and make sure each teacher gets an equal share. Again, everyone can make donations to the goal and then PTA can ensure the right supplies are bought and delivered.
Buy your teachers their favorite flowers. Pre-purchase single flowers, small bouquets, or potted plants online through the school’s school with FutureFund ahead of the big week. PTA then coordinates the gift being delivered to teachers.
Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a Purchase campaign. Add each item type to your online store in FutureFund by creating a specific Purchase campaign for it.
Not only will the ideas below celebrate the teachers, but the funds raised can be used to shower the teachers with more treats or supplies to make their day-to-day a bit easier.
Pick a fun decade or theme in history and use it as a vehicle to celebrate your teachers during their recognition week. Go for a grunge theme from the 90s, flappers from the 20s, or hippies from the 70s, and you’re sure to have a memorable and fun week!
Every day that you dress up, you purchase a “ticket” to that party through your school’s online store with FutureFund.
Encourage lots of animal prints and maybe even include a fun dress-up day for the teachers and/or the students to show their support and gratitude. Don’t forget to change the activities to match the theme!
Each dress-up day or activity can be “pay to participate” and pre-purchased online through the FutureFund store. Pricing can be as little as a dollar!
Include lots of color for this week! The PTA can assign a color to each day of the week and coordinate their activities with each color day. The PTA can even have a color war for the last day of teacher appreciation week.
The money raised from the tickets can then be given back in the form of gift cards or even some of their favorite sweet treats in a rainbow of colors.
Have a different sport take the stage for each day of the appreciation week. Dress-up days and activities can coincide with a different sport!
Have the students write handwritten notes on cards to their teachers explaining what they love about their class and how they’ve benefitted from their lessons. The students can add a drawing or the PTA can include a picture of the student for the teacher to remember them by.
Those participating can pre-purchase their cards online and snag them from the PTA on the big day of inspirational deliveries.
Have students buy candygrams to send to the teachers. Have a few different options to choose from on the school’s FutureFund storefront and then once everyone has made their purchases you can have PTA or students themselves make the deliveries in person.
Invite the students to dress like their favorite teacher and grab a selfie with them! Mockery is, of course, the sincerest form of flattery. Of course, they must “pay to dress.” This is a great way to raise funds in tandem with a day of outward participation. They can even purchase a chance for a photo-op online ahead of time.
FutureFund’s messaging system lets you:
Use Donation campaigns to collect money from community members in support of a specific goal or cause (like specific gifts for teachers).
Use Purchase campaigns to sell event tickets or physical items (like candy grams for teachers).
FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for your fundraising campaigns in just a few clicks. To do this, navigate to Store and click the Reports tab near the top of your screen. Then choose Campaign Summary from the drop-down menu and click Generate Report.
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