Updated October 2024

Summary:

• Teacher Appreciation Week takes place from May 5th to 9th in 2025, with Teacher Appreciation Day falling on May 6th.
• Teacher appreciation ideas don't have to be expensive to be meaningful, but using the right tools can help school groups raise more money to cover the costs. FutureFund makes fundraising easy with customizable campaigns and tools for online sales.
• To organize your Teacher Appreciation Week events, we've provided some free forms and other resources.
• Find templates for a teacher appreciation survey, cost calculator, volunteer sign-up sheet, and more below.

Teacher Appreciation Week takes place in the first full week of May every year. In 2025, it will happen from May 5th to May 9th.

Teacher Appreciation Day falls on Tuesday during Teacher Appreciation Week. In 2025, that's on May 6th.

Planning activities to celebrate your teachers during these dates helps them feel valued and brings school communities together for a good cause. Our team at FutureFund has provided the resources and tips below to help you treat your teachers right during this important time of year.

See Also: How We Help PTAs & School Groups

Raising Money for Teacher Appreciation Events

FutureFund can help your school group raise the money you need to show teachers how much they mean to you. You can use our platform to help fund teacher appreciation activities by:

• Running Donation Campaigns: Collect donations to support teacher appreciation initiatives through an online campaign hosted on your school's FutureFund page. Set suggested donation amounts, enable corporate matching, and add a progress bar so visitors can see how close you are to reaching your goals. Learn how to run a donation campaign on FutureFund.
• Selling School Spirit Wear: Add t-shirts, sweats, hats, and other spirit wear items to your online store and sell them to raise money for special events and activities. Learn how to run a purchase campaign on FutureFund.
• Hold A-Thon Style Pledge Campaigns: Any practice for a school band or sports team can quickly become a fundraiser for teacher appreciation activities when you turn it into an A-Thon! Participating students use FutureFund to register in minutes, then get individual links they can use to collect pledges from family and friends. Learn how to run a pledge campaign on FutureFund.

Teacher Appreciation Ideas for 2025

Your first order of business is to start planning out your actual teacher appreciation activities. We've organized a list of ideas by budget so that you can find cost-effective solutions that meet your school's needs. 

See Also: 15 Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas for PTAs

Low-Cost Ideas (Under $200)

Showing appreciation to your teachers doesn't have to be expensive-in fact, there are lots of affordable ways to make them feel valued. If you don't have a lot of flexibility in your budget, consider some of these options:

• Potluck Lunch Buffet: Ask parents and volunteers to each donate a homemade food item and hold a buffet in the gym.
• Handmade Gifts from Arts & Crafts Students: Have students in creative classes make small items as gifts for teachers at the start of May, and distribute them during Teacher Appreciation Week. This won't cost anything beyond the art supplies already in your classrooms.
• Service Vouchers from Local Businesses: Ask parents who run local businesses like salons or spas to donate free services to teachers. If you don't have enough to go around, give a few away as special prizes to teachers who have made significant contributions to your school this year.
• Shared Gifts for Teachers Lounges: Buying one gift and putting it in a place where all the teachers can use it is much more cost-effective than purchasing one for each teacher. Consider something small but useful, like a coffee machine or french press.

Medium-Budget Ideas ($200-$500)

If you have some money in the budget to put on a larger event, here are some suggestions:

• Personalized Gift Baskets: These don't have to be extravagant! Just putting a few of each teacher's favorite snacks or flowers together with a personalized note can be extremely impactful.
• Food Truck or Coffee Stand: Hire a local vendor and have them set up a food truck or booth at the school on Teacher Appreciation Day.
• Classroom Decorations: These don't have to be expensive-think in the ballpark of a potted plant for each classroom. Even small gestures add up.

Big Budget Ideas ($500+)

If you're looking to make a big splash with your teacher appreciation efforts and have the money to spend, these larger-scale ideas are sure to have an impact:

• School Supply Cake: Instead of freshly baked, this type of "cake" is actually a four-tiered stack of commonly requested classroom supply items arranged around a foam core and bound together with tape and cloth ribbon. Make one for each department (or each classroom if you can afford it).
• Upgrade the Teacher's Lounge: Purchasing new furniture or wallpaper for the teacher's lounge is a great way to let all the teachers at your school know how much you care about them and show that you're invested in giving back.

Forms & Resources

We've created a number of free resources you can use to plan and organize your teacher appreciation activities. To use any of these, simply:

• Click the button in each section to navigate to the corresponding Google Doc, Google Sheet, Google Form, or Canva Template.
• Each template provided is a "View Only" copy. To make an editable version of your own, click "File" and "Make a copy" (for Google Forms, click "Use Template", then click the three dots in the top-right of the screen and click "Make a copy" from the menu that appears).
• Edit your copy of each template with your school's details.

Teacher Appreciation Survey

Before choosing your teacher appreciation events, it's best to find out what will make your teachers feel valued-and what better way than to simply ask them? Here's a sample survey you can distribute to your teachers by hand or electronically via FutureFund's messaging system.

[Get Survey]

DISCLAIMER: Please be sure to make your own copy of the form above-do NOT send this template out to your teachers, or the information they share will be visible to anyone who accesses this document.

Teacher Appreciation Cost Calculator

Making Teacher Appreciation Day go off without a hitch means having the right supplies in advance. Use this sheet to tally up the number of teachers and classrooms you'll need to include in your plan and estimate their needs:

[Download Cost Calculator]

Sample Teacher Appreciation Certificates

A simple certificate of appreciation can go a long way towards making teachers feel seen. These don't have to be elaborate, but each one should include a few pieces of basic information. We've created two templates below to help you get started (feel free to customize these with your own fonts, colors, school logos, etc.):

[Canva Template 1]

[Canva Template 2]

Teacher Appreciation Volunteer Sign-Up Form

Signing up volunteers in advance is essential for making sure your teacher appreciation activities run smoothly. FutureFund helps you sign-up volunteers in just a few simple steps-but if you're not using our platform yet, you can also create copies of this form and send them around to secure volunteers before your events:

[Download Volunteer Sign-Up Form]

Teacher Appreciation Event Flyer Templates

You'll also need to promote your teacher appreciation events so that the school community knows about them and is ready to participate.

In addition to sending messages through FutureFund, we recommend using your school's morning announcements and creating print materials to display on bulletin boards and in classrooms. Here are two templates you can customize for your events:

[Get Template 1]

[Get Template 2]

Show Your Teachers You Care in 2025

Teachers give so much to schools-it's important to show them their efforts are being recognized. Use the resources we've provided above to make sure your teachers feel seen and supported during Teacher Appreciation Week and on Teacher Appreciation Day.

We've also got tools that can help your school group go one step further in supporting your teachers. Get started with FutureFund to see how our platform helps you identify teacher needs, coordinate volunteers for events, and raise more money for the things your school really needs.