Cents in Action: 1776 Special
For this week’s 'Cents in Action' post, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight three amazing educators who raised over $22,200 in total! Noah Siegler, Sandy Foster, and Nicholas Bungard have shared their experiences with crowdfunding on PledgeCents in the form of raw feedback below.
Noah Siegler (KIPP Austin Obras - Austin, TX)
Our KIPP district (in Austin, Texas) recommended we use PledgeCents; after our recent fundraising campaign, I can see why! The platform is extremely user friendly. Creating a cause is easy and straightforward. But I what I loved most about PledgeCents is that it is...personal. Within a few hours of submitting our plan, I received an e-mail with recommendations that would make our cause more enticing to donors. Then, throughout the many weeks of our fundraising, I received constant personalized updates (via e-mail and even a conference call!) with even more fundraising advice.
As a novice to crowdsourcing, this was extremely helpful. Because of the advice of the experts at PledgeCents, coupled with the ease in which I could capture the attention of a wide audience and drive donors to our cause, we were able to raise $20,000! And within two weeks of our cause ending, a check was in our hands. It was amazing. I will definitely use PledgeCents again.
Sandy Foster (Liberty Middle School - Pratt, KS)
In a concerted effort to create a marketplace for our middle school library, we received a recommendation from one of our teachers to fund our mega Lego wall through PledgeCents. We set our goal at $500, about half the cost of the full project, as we were receiving community donations, as well. Within a few days, we had raised just over $400. The final day of the campaign, we received the remainder from a very generous donor who had seen our plans and appreciated our plans to use the wall to creatively teach fractions, area and perimeter, and scale models, among other things.
The 8X8-foot wall was recently installed and has become one of the gathering points in our school library.
Nicholas Bungard (KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory - Philadelphia, PA)
At our school academic success is a top priority; however, I believe that valuable learning can occur outside of the classroom. This idea is essentially my role as Director of Enrichment is to provide opportunities for my students to get out and explore the world through field trips. I plan a field trip every month for each grade in our school which culminates in a 4day-3night trip to a summer Camp in the Pocono Mountains. Unfortunately, budget concerns were making it very hard for me to financially afford our annual end of year camping trip. I was trying to figure out where I was going to get the additional funds needed and how I was going to tell my students that the trip they have been hearing about all year from their teachers and teammates might not happen. I needed help...Enter PledgeCents! PledgeCents supported me from the very beginning and talked me through the steps and best practices to creating a cause that would get attention and get results. Anytime I had a question, PledgeCents was there for me. With PledgeCents' help, I was able to raise $2,500 for my students which saved our annual camping trip! I would recommend PledgeCents to anyone who wants to make a dream come true in their classroom and for their students but needs a little help. Get creative and do something great for your students with PledgeCents. What do you want to do?
*Noah, Sandy, and Nicholas were not compensated for these posts.
