Hey friends! Shewwweeey! I am poop-did! I've got so much to post...including LAST week's dental unit pics, this week's Dr. Seuss pics, and most importantly freebies! Whoop whoop. But...before I do all that, I want to ask you all a question. How many of you have used Donors Choose? Have you had success? My project has been posted for almost 2 months now and I've had 1 donor! :( I've advertised it on my blog, posted it on facebook, and have told friends/teachers/etc. about it. What am I doing wrong? I'm desperate to get this project funded so I may have a "big momma" as I call it, in my classroom. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any feedback would be much appreciated. You can view my project by clicking the link on the right hand side of my blog. Thanks!
9 comments:
I just got my project funded after three month, there was only 8 days left until it expired, some people/companies like to donate to the ones that are expiring the soonest so don't loose hope! My college has had several projects funded now and they almost always get funded in the last week or two.
Amy
TheResource(ful)Room!
Hey girl! I thought mine was never going to be funded but it came through at the very end! I sent the info and why it was great for the class to all of my parents in the class, as well as put it in my email signature and on my classroom blog. Towards the end i also got a match from lakeshore...i think they try and help the ones that are not getting funded. Do you have the automatic link to your facebook whenever activity happens?? I think just being shameless every once and a while helps!! ;)
I have had two projects funded- one was fully funded by a local buisness and the other one took a while to be funded. i found that occasionally posting a link on facebook with a match code (CHASE is an active one right now) helped a lot and got me quite a few donors. Good luck!
I have been doing Donor's Choose on and off since 2007 (my first year teaching). Some tips I have are to start with smaller proposals (aka less money) because they will be funded faster. Also, the more donations you get the more likely it is to be funded... even if the donations are very small it helps to have a higher number of donations in all. Also, in March they are having a dollar for dollar matching campaign. If I were you I would wait until then and beg my friends and family to donate, even if it's $5 each. Also, I have donated to my own projects in the past just to give them a little push. I hope that helps!
Mary
Adventures in Kindergarten
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hi! I love me some Donorschoose. I have been super lucky with over 30 projects funded. sounds greedy, but I often do projects for entire grade levels since I am a resource teacher.
I always make sure to tailor my project around a funding offer that is up at that time (townsend press, lakeshore, magic tree house, etc). and I always look for dollar-for-dollar matching offer, and where ever I post about my project, I make sure to post the dollar to dollar code.
snd ditto to what Mary said prior to me, the more donations from different individuals, the "higher" your project will rank. the higher on the list your project is, the more exposure it will have to people just looking for a project. those donations can be for $1. hope that helps and good luck!
Erin,
I love Donor's Choose and completely agree with what others are telling you. Here is a post that I wrote a few months back with some hints (nothing Earth shattering):
http://camillesopendoor.blogspot.com/search/label/DonorsChoose
Camille
An Open Door
I echo what other people have said. Don't give up. Use the match codes and spread the word. I wrote a post about a free program that creates a poster with pull tabs with your url. If you have a second, take a look.
Life with Mrs. L
Keep thinking positive. When I first started with Donors Choose, my projects also took a long time to be funded. Don't be afraid of reposting it on Facebook, you never know what might happen.
Best of luck to you.
Cathe
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